ACHILLEION

The Sissi who lived here is no longer the luminous teenager immortalized by Romy Schneider in Ernst Marischka's famous trilogy. She has grown old. In 1890, the Empress of Austria was already 52 years old. She witnessed the suicide of her son, the murder of his father and his brother-in-law. She needs to regain her strength and change her surroundings. So she offers herself a white and blue odyssey. Elizabeth of Austria loved Italy and Greece...

In the rooms on the ground floor, decorated with beautiful frescoes, a few souvenirs bear witness to the passage of her illustrious guests. Her passion for mythology can be seen throughout the building. On the walls, many paintings recall the most heroic scenes from The Iliad. Every single piece of furniture is inlaid with Hellenic motifs. This lover of the arts even offered a statue to each of the nine muses... Sissi devoted herself with all the energy of despair to this house.
The vast garden, from where a magnificent view of the Pontikonissi extends, is adorned with a few statues. In the middle of the cypress and palm trees, a bronze Achilles greets the procession of visitors that rushes into the villa. Wilhelm II, who later bought and occupied the place, removed Heine's and replaced it with a victorious Achilles to eclipse Herter's beautiful wounded Achilles. But the story goes on: the palace was used as a hospital from 1915. The Greek government then turned it into a casino, before transforming it into a museum. A century later, the summer palace has lost none of its splendour. In 1980, the Achilleion was visited by James Bond. The villa and its garden were to serve as a backdrop for an evocative title: Just for your eyes...
Because there is still a view that is hardly debatable: perched on the heights of Gastouri, some ten kilometres south of the capital, the Achilleion dominates its world. From the terrace of this neo-classical building, the view embraces Italian gardens populated by mythological figures. On the horizon, cliffs with lush vegetation tumble down towards the emerald sea. And in a creek hemmed with foam, one guesses a beach of blond sand licked by the swell..

The only shadow in the picture: Elisabeth of Austria probably did not benefit from Greece as much as she would have liked. Eight years after "moving" to Corfu, on September 9, 1898, she dies in Geneva, stabbed by an Italian anarchist. Emperor Wilhelm II took over the Achilleion in 1907, where she had taken up residence when she was in Corfu.