# HIV HEROES

112
Underneath the imperial city
If there’s anyone Conchita Wurst has
to share her glory with, it’s our beloved
Sissi, as Empress Elisabeth has
been tenderly nicknamed by all those
who are eagerly trying to shove tickets
to one of her numerous palaces or
a cup adorned with her image at you.
Up until Conchita’s big breakthrough,
Sissi was, in effect, Austria’s First Lady,
which might have had more to do with
the way Romy Schneider portrayed her
in her famous Sissi trilogy of films than
with the actual eccentric royal lady,
known for keeping diplomats waiting
and then showing them gymnastic
tricks on the high bar.
If you feel like walking in the eccentric
empress’ footsteps for a day, you
should visit her private quarters at the
Sissi Museum at Hofburg Palace, her
summer residence Schönbrunn, or the
Hermesvilla. There’s a total of 27 palaces
waiting to be explored in Vienna,
so when you’ve finally seen the last
one, you might already feel it’s time to
go back to the first.
Yet instead of leading us to the grandiose
buildings of the old aristocracy,
Conchita takes us to the Imperial Crypt,
where 149 members of the Habsburg
family lie buried under the Kapuzinerkirche.
It’s open to the public and
if you manage to find an unoccupied
spot, you can place all kinds of devotional
objects by the empress’ tomb.
Art for philistines
Next, we follow Conchita into our nation’s
greatest music institution: the
Vienna State Opera. Here, you can
regularly see international stars like
Anna Netrebko perform on the grand
stage. Those of you who prefer your
nights spent in clubs should at least
check in during the day for a guided
tour through the magnificent building.
The auditorium is humongous and the
glimpse that visitors are allowed into
the backstage area is really quite exciting.
Newbies and spontaneous types
can purchase standing- room tickets
for three to five euros on the night of
the show. After all, as a city of culture,
Vienna wants all its citizens to have access
to what it has to offer, and when