Empress Elisabeth of Austria had the palace built after the 1889 Mayerling incident, on the former Villa Vraila at Gastouri, about 6 miles (10 km) south of Corfu city. The Italian architect Raffaele Caritto designed it. The article gives roughly 1890 for construction and no completion date. It describes a Pompeian style, evoking a Phaeacian palace, on a site of 200,000 square meters. Ernst Herter's Dying Achilles is the garden centerpiece.
Elisabeth lost interest by 1896, and much of the interior went to Vienna. Wilhelm II bought it in 1907 and added a bronze Achilles statue. It served as a military hospital in the First World War, and the Axis powers used it as headquarters in the Second. A casino leased it from 1962 to 1983.
The Hellenic Tourism Development Company runs it as a museum.
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