The Sissi Promenade
The Empress travelled to Merano a second time in the fall of 1889. The very day after her arrival, she went to Trauttmansdorff Castle “and walked her favourite paths and familiar routes through the castle’s parks and corridors, at length and with obvious pleasure”.Sissi was an avid sports fan
It must have created a flurry of excitement back in 1870 when the Empress of Austria arrived in Merano – together with her entire court – to make her winter home at Trauttmansdorff Castle and partake of the city’s mild and healthful climate. Sissi was an avid sports fan: her love of long hikes led her from the castle through the nearby downy oak forest on her “charming path, sprinkled with fine gravel” where she could “take a remote and undisturbed walk, far removed from the hum of the world”.IN NOBLE FOOTSTEPS
When construction for the botanical Gardens began in 1994, most of her paths were overgrown – however there were still some irises and yucca plants remaining from Sissi’s times. Visitors to Trauttmansdorff can literally walk in the noble footsteps of the Empress herself along some of the historic paths that have been incorporated into the Sissi Promenade.
The Sissi Promenade