Archduchess Alice Habsburg Bench in Żywiec

In the castle park in Żywiec, right next to the palace, a woman sits on a bench with a scarf bearing the Habsburg coat of arms in her hand. This is Archduchess Alice Habsburg — a Swede by birth who became a Pole by choice and, during World War II, a soldier of the Polish Home Army (AK).

Countess, archduchess, AK courier

Born Alice Ankarcrona in Sweden in 1889 into a family related to the royal house, after the death of her first husband, Count Ludwig Badeni, she tied her life to Archduke Charles Albert of Habsburg; from 1920 they lived in Żywiec and had four children. During the war both joined the underground — Alice in the ranks of the AK. After the war the communist authorities forced the family to leave for Sweden; the archduchess died in Stockholm in 1985.

A statue beneath her daughter's windows

The life-size bronze, a work by the sculptor Bronisław Krzysztof, was unveiled in the winter of 2012 — during the lifetime of the couple's daughter, Maria Krystyna Habsburg (d. 2012), who had returned to Żywiec and lived in the former Habsburg palace. The bench was placed at the foot of her apartment. It is an easy stop on a walk: next door are the castle, the Miniatures Park and the alleys of the castle park, a dozen or so minutes on foot from the centre along Zamkowa Street.