Audience Chamber
Audience Chamber
When giving audiences, the emperor stood at the high desk in the foreground of the room. Upon it lies an audience list from 3 January 1910.
The paintings on the wall portray Emperor Franz Joseph's predecessors. To the left in the foreground is his grandfather, Emperor Franz II/I, who was the last Holy Roman Emperor from 1762. In 1806, faced with Napoleon's military victories, he was forced to dissolve the Holy Roman Empire. Two years previously he had elevated the Habsburg patrimonial lands as the Austrian Empire, thus enabling his eldest son Ferdinand, portrayed in the next painting, to become the next emperor despite suffering from severe epilepsy. Emperor Ferdinand, who was Franz Joseph's uncle, abdicated in favour of his 18-year-old nephew during the turmoil of the revolution in 1848. When Franz Joseph died at Schönbrunn on 21 November 1916, he had controlled the destiny of his country for 68 years.
