On 5th October, 1997 Trieste plunged back into its Austrian past and did so from the spring board of nostalgia and, above all, of affection towards a figure loved and admired throughout Europe: Elisabeth of Austria, wife of Franz Joseph, commonly known as Sissi.
On that 5th of October in Trieste, Piazza della Libertà was decorated for a feast day and packed full with people, including the Old traditional regiment of Vienna, Historical committees, institutional representatives and simple citizens. They were all there to witness the inauguration of a statue dedicated to the Empress, which once stood in the town in 1912 but was subsequently removed in 1921 for political reasons.
Trieste still loves Sissi and Sissi loved Trieste intensely. She travelled here on many occasions, on official business, accompanying her husband, the Emperor (including the occasion when Oberdan attempted to assassinate Franz Joseph), or for personal leisure.  The Empress had a special relationship with her brother-in-law, Maximilian of Austria, Austrian governor of the Lombardo-Veneto and later Emperor of Mexico, and adored his residence, Miramare Castle, immersed as it was in nature, looking out over the sea and allowing her to escape from the constrictions of court and take refuge in the poetic side of the world that she preferred.