Villa Schratt
The Emperor's path to Katharina Schratt
Elisabeth, the unhappy empress, spent 44 years married to her husband, but only 4 years actually living with him. The Emperor, though staunch in his affection towards her, found her constant daydreaming impossible, and consequently his friendship with the actress Katharina Schratt came as no surprise to anyone.
She originally spent her summers at Schloss Frauenstein near St. Wolfgang. The Emperor, however, placed Villa Felicitas on the road to Pfandl at her disposal, which soon became known as the "Schratt Villa".
A small path led from the Kaiservilla to the rear of the Kaiserpark and to a little door, which the Emperor used to exit the park and which today no longer exists.
The inhabitants of the surrounding houses know only too well from the tales told by their parents and grandparents how fond the Emperor was of making his way to the villa, and how his secret agents used to hide in the bushes to ward away petitioners or even more serious threats.
After exiting the Kaiserpark the path turns right towards Doppelblick, past the Kaiserdörfl (Jainzendorfstraße), and a little later, after the wayside shrine, heads down steeply to the Ischl. The monarch then walked along the bank of the river on what is today Kreutererstraße, past no. 6, in which Carl Michael Ziehrer spent four summers, to Dammweg. He crossed the Ischl on a footbridge put into place especially for him and then walked through the small wood behind the villa to reach his destination.
What the Emperor did when he arrived there is kept quiet for reasons of discretion. We are happy that he had some pleasure during his life at least, as he had very little before and after this episode!
Getting there from the hotel: After leaving the hotel through the main entrance, turn left and down Voglhuberstraße, cross Götzstraße and go past the Autohaus Fröhlich car dealership, walk along Holzrechengasse and cross the footbridge to reach Jainzendorfstraße and the "Kaiserdörfl". From here onwards you can follow in the footsteps of Emperor Franz Joseph!
You can complete your walk by walking around the dam. Or you can also - to balance things out as it were - return via the Elisabeth Forest Path to Bad Ischl (start behind Gasthof Pfandl, walk 2 in reverse in the "Walks and Jogging Paths" folder).
