Gisela, archduchess of Austria, princess of Bavaria |
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BORN 15 Jul 1856, Schloss Laxenburg (near Wien) - DIED 27 Jul 1932, München, Bayern BIRTH NAME Gisela Louise Marie GRAVE LOCATION München, Bayern: Michaelskirche, Neuhauserstrasse 6 |
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Gisela was the oldest of the three surviving children of emperor Francis Joseph of Austria and the empress Elizabeth. She was raised by her grandmother, archduchess Sophia. She was named after the princess Gisela of the tenth century. In 1873 she married prince Leopold of Bavaria, a son of prince regent Luitpold. She had no trouble integrating in Munich and they had four children, born between 1874 and 1883. When her first child was born her mother Elizabeth wrote to her brother Rudolph that the child was ugly but lively, just like Gisela herself. Gisela was never close to her mother. She did get on with her brother Rudolph and she never overcame his suicide in 1889. During the First World War she turned her palace in Munich into a hospital. She died in Munich in 1932 and was buried at the Michaelskirche. Family • Father: Franz Joseph von Habsburg, Emperor of Austria • Mother: Elisabeth von Bayern, Kaiserin von Österreich • Son: Georg, Prinz von Bayern • Brother: Rudolf von Habsburg, Crown Prince of Austria and Hungary • Sister: Nahowski, Helene |
| Images |
 The wall tablet at the Michaelskirche in Munich that marks the grave of archduchess Gisela. Picture by Androom (20 Aug 1994) |
Sources • Cars, Jean des, Elisabeth d'Autriche Ou La Fatalité, Perrin, Paris, 1983 • Haslip, Joan, The Lonely empress, A Biography of Elizabeth of Austria, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1965 • Rall, Hans, Führer durch die Münchner Fürstengrüfte, Wittelsbach Lebensbilder von Kaiser Ludwig bis zur Gegenwart, Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds, München, 1985 • Reformer, Republikaner und Rebellen, Das andere Haus Habsburg-Lotharingen, Piper, München, 1995 |
