Giorgio Petti
Related articles
Luziwuzi's unwelcome antics - The Kaiserbründl Baths
The younger brother of Emperor Franz Josef, Archduke Ludwig Viktor, was tenderly called "Luziwuzi" by his friends, and who was commonly known at Court for his malicious tongue and his predilection for wearing women's clothes.
His mother tried to get him married several times, without success. Instead he concentrated on building up his own art collection and had a city palace erected on Vienna's Schwarzenbergplatz - Palais Erzherzog Ludwig Viktor, according to plans designed by Heinrich von Ferstel. Here Ludwig Viktor held several rather 'gay' parties.
Perhaps rather unsurprisingly, the Archduke's favourite past time apart from partying and collecting art was to visit the ornate and upmarket "Centralbad" - today the Kaiserbründl gay bathhouse. On one of his visits there the Archiduke caused a big scandal when an officer of the Austrian army slapped him in the face after Luziwuzi had made some obviously unwelcome sexual advances in the steam room. This interesting episode is another reason to visit this amazing (and vast) place, even if you have been to many other saunas, as this one is pretty spectacular with its Arabesque style and refined ambiance.
Anyway, due to this slapping incident his brother and emperor, who had been somehow tolerant of his brother's outrageous behaviour up to that point, forbid Ludwig Viktor to remain in Vienna and 'exiled' him to Schloss Klessheim near Salzburg, well away from saunas and the capital's limelight. Here Archduke Luziwuzi died in 1919, aged 76.
A tale of forbidden love - Schönbrunn Palace
Isabella was born in Madrid in 1741, the daughter of the Infante Felipe of Spain, Duke of Parma and his wife Louise Elisabeth, eldest daughter of Louis XV of France. In 1760 a marriage by proxy was arranged between Isabella and Archduke Josef of Austria, heir to the Habsburg Monarchy.
After Isabella's arrival in Vienna, Joseph was thrilled with his new bride and overwhelmed the queen with his love. In return, she increasingly locked herself away, so much so much that she quickly plunged into melancholy. It appears that the cause for this feeling was the fact that Isabella spent most of the time with Josef's sister Maria Christina. The two women loved each other deeply. During the few years Isabella and Christina knew each other, they exchanged 200 letters and "billets" while living at the same court. They spent so much time together that they earned the comparison with Orpheus and Eurydice.
Isabel and Maria were united not only by a shared interest in music and art but also by a deep mutual lesbian love, unfortunately something that in their circumstances and in those days had to remain secret. Every day they wrote long letters to each other in which they revealed their feelings of love. But while the letters of Maria Christina showed her happy nature, Isabel's feelings were mixed and, in her expressions of affection, showed a certain pessimism, reflecting her growing obsession with death.
Isabella suffered several miscarriages and in 1763, she fell ill with smallpox and gave birth three months premature, to a daughter, Maria Christina, who died a few hours after birth. A week later, Isabella followed her daughter in death at Schönbrunn Palace.
