Hermesvilla

Listen for a moment. Beyond the gravel path, the wind moves through old oaks and beeches. Somewhere in the undergrowth, a twig snaps. You are inside the Lainzer Tiergarten, a large walled forest on the western edge of Vienna. Through the trees rises a pale villa with steep roofs and a small tower. It looks less like a palace and more like a country retreat. That is exactly what it was meant to be.

This is the Hermesvilla, in the Hietzing district of Vienna. Emperor Franz Joseph had it built in the 1880s as a gift for his wife, Empress Elisabeth. Most of the world knows her by her nickname, Sisi. The emperor hoped that a quiet house in the woods, close to the capital, would keep his restless wife near Vienna. It was a generous idea. Whether it worked is another question, and we will come back to it.

First, the setting. The Lainzer Tiergarten was an imperial hunting ground for centuries. A long stone wall still runs around it, and the forest inside feels very far from the city. Wild boar still live here, and so do deer. If you walked in from one of the gates, you crossed meadows and woodland to reach the villa. That journey is part of the experience. The house was designed to be found, not seen from a street.

The architect was Carl von Hasenauer. He was one of the leading builders of imperial Vienna, and he worked on large monuments along the Ringstrasse, the grand boulevard that circles the old city. Here, he worked on a smaller and more private scale. Look at the outside. It mixes stone, render and decorative details in a historicist style. Historicism means borrowing freely from earlier periods, such as the Renaissance, and combining them. The result is elegant, but deliberately relaxed.

Now, the name. Why Hermes? In the garden stands a white marble statue of Hermes, the messenger god of ancient Greece. The sculptor was Ernst Herter, a German artist. Elisabeth admired classical Greece deeply. She studied Greek, travelled to Corfu, and later built a palace there in honour of the hero Achilles. So the villa takes its name not from a person, but from a statue. Find it before you leave. Many visitors walk straight past it on their way to the door.

Inside, the rooms change your sense of the building completely. The plain country exterior gives way to painted ceilings, rich fabrics and dense decoration. This contrast is the first surprise of the Hermesvilla. From outside, it suggests simplicity. Inside, it shows the full taste of late nineteenth century Vienna, a city that loved colour, pattern and theatre. Walk slowly. Look up as often as you look around.

The most famous room is the empress's bedroom. Its decoration was designed by Hans Makart, the most celebrated painter in Vienna at that time. The theme was Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream, a play about fairies, lovers and enchanted forests. It was a fitting choice for a house in the woods. Makart died before the work was finished. Other artists completed it from his designs.

And here is the second surprise. Among the young painters who worked on decoration in this villa were Gustav Klimt and his brother Ernst, together with their colleague Franz Matsch. At that time, they worked together as a small decorating company. Years later, Gustav Klimt would become the most famous painter of Vienna, known for his golden portraits. Here, though, he was still a craftsman, working within someone else's vision. It is a quiet beginning for a very loud career.

Other rooms show different sides of the empress. Elisabeth was famous for her strict exercise routine. She kept gymnastic equipment in her homes, which was unusual for a woman of her rank in that era. At the Hermesvilla, a room was set aside for exercise, decorated with painted scenes in an ancient style. Imagine that: an empress training on rings and bars beneath classical murals, in a house hidden in a hunting forest.

So, did the gift work? Not really. Elisabeth spent only limited time here. She preferred to travel, and she moved restlessly between spas, islands and foreign cities. The villa was beautiful, but it could not hold her for long. In 1898, she was assassinated in Geneva by an Italian anarchist. After that, the house in the woods lost its central purpose. It is hard to stand in these rooms without feeling some of that distance between intention and reality.

Today, the Hermesvilla belongs to the Wien Museum, the city museum of Vienna. It shows the historic rooms and also hosts changing exhibitions, often about fashion, everyday life or Viennese culture. So the experience changes from visit to visit. One season you may find gowns and accessories. Another season, photographs or design. The empty imperial home has become a place where the city tells stories about itself.

As you move through the house, notice the windows. Each one frames the forest in a different way: a meadow, a line of trees, a patch of sky. Hasenauer placed this villa so that nature fills the views from inside. On a grey day, the rooms feel close and warm. On a bright day, green light reflects off the painted walls. The building and the forest work together.

When you step back outside, pause on the path. Listen again to the trees, and to the gravel under your shoes. Look back at the villa, small against the woods. It was built for one woman who rarely stayed. Yet it is still here, still painted, still standing in the forest she seldom walked. As you head back toward the gates, keep an eye on the undergrowth. The boar are usually closer than you think.