MAXIMILIAN’S ISLAND HOME.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 752, 30 July 1886, Page 5

MAXIMILIAN’S ISLAND HOME.

The Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria, in addition to many other desirable pomps and vanities, has an island of his own—Lacroma, in the Adriatic, opposite Ragusa ; and there in the midst of lovely scenery, surrounded by a transparent sea, he is convalescing after a recent indisposition. The isle, three days’ steam from Trieste, is as beautiful as Monaco, and quite out of the world; for while the owner is in residence no one is allowed to land without a special permit. Lacroina formerely belonged to that most unfortunate of monarchs, Maximilian of Mexico, who was much attached to it, and wrote several little poems in praise of its charms. After his terrible end the island was possessed by a succession of ordinary people, by one of whom it was sold to the Archduke Rudolph in 1878. The future Emperor of Austria lives at Lacroina in the greatest simplicity. When Maximilian bought the isle the only available residence on it was an old monastery which had been going to ruin for half a century ; and in this building the Crown Prince and Princess live their simple lives. There are but three good rooms in the house—the drawing-room, the ancient refectory, used as a salon de musique, and the dining-room. The imperial bed chambers are of very meagre dimensions, while the long-titled dukes and duchesses of the suit have to be content with the cells of the vanished monks. The plain whitewashed walls match the rough, serviceable furniture. The monastery is said to have been built by the citizens of Ragusa, as a thank-offering for the stoppage of a great fire. At the beginning of the present century it was partially destroyed by an earthquake, and has never been thoroughly restored. The scenery of the island is entirely romantic. Beneath a sky which is rarely clouded grows a luxuriant tropical vegetation—groves of orange and mrytle, of aloes and figs ; a true 1 land where the citron blooms.’—London Life.