The Habsburg who went native. Archduke Johann rejected court life in Vienna, turned to the Alps with passionate intensity, and became the most beloved and unconventional member of the imperial family. He travelled through the mountains on foot, studied alpine flora and geology, founded meteorological stations, and eventually married Anna Plochl, the daughter of the postmaster at Bad Aussee in the Styrian Salzkammergut. The marriage to a commoner was a scandal that delighted the Austrian public.
He founded the Joanneum museum in Graz, helped introduce railways to Styria, and was briefly Regent of the German Confederation in 1848. His legacy is the romantic ideal of the alpine Habsburg: a man of the mountains, not the court.
The Salzkammergut, the Styrian Alps, and the entire alpine world that surrounds Salzburg were his domain. For visitors exploring the region beyond the city, Archduke Johann's spirit is everywhere.
