Visiting the Summer residence of our beloved bavarian Princess Elisabeth, Empress of Austria in Vienna: Hermesvilla (Photos & Videos)

After joining the MeetUp in Vienna last week I still had some free time to explore the city. It wasn't the first time for me there and I wanted to see something new.

The weather was perfect to be outside, so @manncpt and I decided to walk in the Lainzer Tiergarten.

The Lainzer Tiergarten is a publicly accessible nature reserve in Vienna, which is managed and maintained by the Municipal Department 49 - Forestry Department and Agricultural Operations of the City of Vienna. It is a zoo in the sense of a vast forest area with a rich wild life within the garden. As protected area, it is also part of the biosphere reserve Wienerwald.

The total area of ​​the Lainzer Tiergarten currently counts 2,450 hectares, of which 2,360 hectares are located in Vienna's urban area. 1,945 hectares are forest area. In winter most of it is closed (marked in white)

The perimeter wall of the Lainzer Tiergarten is about 22 kilometers long. Entrance to the Tiergarten is possible only by gates open at different times depending on the season (clockwise):

• Lainzer Tor (to the east, with visitor center and near Hermesvilla the "main gate" of the Tiergarten, open all year long

Gates closed in December and January:

• Gütenbachtor (in the south)
• Laaber Tor (in the southwest)
• Pulverstampfor (in the north, at the Auhof)
• Nikolaitor (in the northeast, near Wien Hütteldorf station)
• Sankt Veiter Tor

We entered the park at the Lainzer Tor.

From there we took the walking route through a little part of the forest, getting to the Palast: Villa Hermes, coming back next to the little lake and some deers.

Entering the forest we saw a little projext, which the Forestry Department started a few month ago: They put different trees and plants and a little sign with its name and explination next to it on the walk, so people would get more educated about nature.

I think it is a great idea especially for kids to learn about the trees, because nowerdays I often get the feeling, that they don´t play outside a lot.. and therefor don´t know and don´t connect.

Turkey oak

British oak

Bladdernut

Ivy

Black Scots pine

Spruce

After about 20 minutes walking we started to see the palace between the trees! - The weather was just perfect and the light incredible on that day. It even looked a bit mystical and I got exited to visit that place, that I never had heard before.

The name of the villa (Hermesvilla) refers to a white marble statue of Hermes, located in the garden in front of the villa. Emperor Franz Joseph I. presented the castle to his wife, Empress Elisabeth, as the "Castle of Dreams". Today the Hermesvilla is used for exhibitions of the Vienna Museum.

When we went there was nobody else!! - We had this wonderful building for ourselves and could walk around it totally private.

Emperor Franz Joseph decided in the summer of 1881 to construct the "Villa Waldruh" -(the original project name) - He had the facility built for his wife, which often wanted to escape her duties at the main castle. In 1882-1886 it was constructed according to the plans of the architect Karl Freiherr von Hasenauer.

At the latest in 1885, the decision was made to give the castle the name "Villa Hermes". The empress herself commissioned the Berlin sculptor Ernst Herter with the design of the sculpture "Hermes the Guardian", which was put in the garden. In 1886, the building, including all outbuildings, like the Riding School of the Empress, were completed.

From 1887 to 1898 (Elisabeth was murdered on September 10, 1898), the imperial couple regularly stayed here at least a few days in late spring, often even for a few weeks. At that time, the Lainzer Tiergarten still was located outside of Vienna and it was the perfect spot for them to get some privacy.

In the course of further construction work, the emperor ordered the planing of all meadows inside the parforce plank and the removal of the molehills, because his majesty could not ride elsewhere. On the shore of the nearest pond in the Lainzer Tiergarten, a bathing cabin was built for the Empress, which is no longer preserved today.

The street to the Hermesvilla (today's Hermesstraße) was one of the first in Vienna to receive electric lighting; In 1896, the villa was connected to the Central telephone station in Vienna.

After seeing the front side of the building we walked around it and visited also the other buildings behind it.

On this side you also find the entrance to the Vienna Museum, which is located inside the villa. Right now it's closed but normally it is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 10am till 18:00pm.

The entrance is free for everybody younger than nineteen. On every first sunday of the month the entrance is gratis for everybody!

The normal entrance price is only 7 EUR.

Here you can get more information about the current exhibitions on the official website of the Vienna Museum

Of course you can also see how the emperors used to live and spend there time in there.

From there we started our walk back through the park, to see more of the landscape, in which the royals used to hunt.

The Lainzer Tiergarten has always been known for its richness of wild animals. Deer, fallow deer, roe deer, mouflon (horned wild sheep) and, above all, wild boar are among the many native animal species. Also a large variety of bats was detected.

The whole Lainzer Tiergarten is part of the Natura 2000 nature reserve and is home to some of the oldest beech and oak trees in the Vienna Woods. Trunk circumference of up to four meters can be found. Most of these old trees can be found at the Johannser Kogel. Due to the high amount of wildlife in the park you will find many cattle-breeding habitats, which are normally very rare.

On our way back to the Lainzer Tor we also saw wild gates.

On the other side we could see the little lake, in which Sissi (The empress Elisabeth) used to take a swim. Now it is totally frozen and looked super beautiful with the sunlight reflecting on the ice.

From there it was just a 10 minutes walk back to the Lainzer Gate, where we had our car parked.

Back home, @nicoletta came by for a glass of wine to chat a bit and say goodbye before I took the train to my new European adventure ;)

It was a pleasure as always to visit Vienna and get to know a few of the vienna steemians! A special thanks to @manncpt and @nicoletta for spending so much time with me, showing me the city!

As always I hope you enjoyed my post and I am grateful for every Upvore, Resteem and Comment, because you are supporting my travels with it!

Cheers,
Liz