Empress Elisabeth of Austria, also know by her nickname Sisi (or Sissi – it seems to be spelt both ways) was Empress of Austria and, then, Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Franz Joseph I on 24 April 1854 until her assassination in 1898.

So why is there a statue of her outside a casino hotel in Funchal? Well, it’s because she visited twice, first in 1860 to 1861 to seek a reprieve from respiratory illness. The villa in which she stayed was eventually demolished, and the casino stands on the same site.

She visited again in 1893-94, but this time stayed at Reid’s Palace Hotel (which still exists and was just down the road from the hotel in which we stayed).

People leave flowers in the hands of the statue in remebrance.

Olympus Trip 35 & Fujifilm Across II. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Taken 2 July 2026.