The Hermesvilla was commissioned by Franz Josef I and presented to his wife as a gift. Built by Karl von Hasenauer between 1882 and 1886, with Klimt and Makart on board as interior decorators, the villa is plush – it’s more a mansion than simply a ‘villa’.
Empress Elisabeth’s bedroom is well over the top, with the walls and ceiling covered in motifs from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Hermesvilla is a municipal museum.
