A poignant visit to Austria's Bad Ischl, where WWI was declared

The Kaiservilla was where in the Austrian Emperor in 1914 declared war on Serbia, thus starting World War I.

On this day, 110 years ago, the small town of Bad Ischl made its mark in history as the venue for Austria declaring war on Serbia in what eventually led to World War I (“the great seminal catastrophe of the 20th century” – George F. Kennan).

A month earlier, Emperor (or Kaiser) Franz Joseph’s nephew and heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie, were assassinated while on a state visit to Sarajevo, Bosnia.