Denkmal

The Sisi monument stands on the Altenberg hill in Garitz, a district of Bad Kissingen in Lower Franconia. It was raised to honour Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary, known as Sisi, who visited the spa town several times. The memorial is registered in the Bavarian list of protected monuments.

The idea came from the local court photographer Jacques Pilartz two months after her death in 1898. A later committee chose a rocky outcrop where Sisi had walked, adding a bronze portrait plaque cast in Geislingen. The stone group was built by master builder Renninger, the plaque modelled by Emanuel Gerhart, and the planting arranged by royal gardener Wolfgang Singer.

Visitors find a simple yet dignified memorial set among lichen-covered boulders. A few metres away stands a small round temple, and the path behind it leads through quiet woodland. The bronze plaque shows Sisi’s likeness in profile, fixed to the rock face. On unveiling day a Vienna orchestra played the national anthem and an Austrian folk tune.