Schloss Schönbrunn – The Viennese Versailles

Schloss Schönbrunn is a huge baroque palace in the outskirts of Vienna that served as summer residence to the Habsburg family from the 18th century until the end of the monarchy in 1918. It was intended to rival Versailles, and although it did not, it came closer to size and ideal of the French palace than
any other baroque palace in Europe. Both the palace and huge garden are worth seeing.

The main palace has 1441 rooms, but only around 40 are open to the public. (Large parts of the palace are actually divided into apartments and rented out to civil servants.) The interior can be seen on a guided tour, or, more conveniently, with an audio guide included in the admission price.

The Imperial Tour includes 22 rooms and emphasizes the life of Emperor Franz Joseph (1830-1916) and his Bavarian wife Elizabeth, better known as Sisi. This is the standard tour, and despite time-controlled admission times, the palace can get very crowded. The Grand Tour adds a further 18 rooms and is well worth the extra 2.60€. The halls are markedly quieter after the group tours head for the
exit, and the best part of the palace can enjoyed in relative peace and quiet. This tour includes the Maria Theresa apartments, with original baroque art and decorations.

The enormous park is a joy to stroll in. The marvelous Gloriette that crowns the hill at the far end of the park draws the eye and eventually the body up the hill for spectacular views of the palace, gardens, and the Vienna cityscape. The less energetic can ignore the hill and explore the baroque gardens that are relatively flat ,with ample shade and benches to just sit and relax. The
challenging maze is a source of fun and joy for children from around age 3 to 88.

Quick Tips:

In the early 17th century, Emperor Matthias discovered a spring in his
hunting forest just outside Vienna. He referred to it as the Schöner Brunnen
(beautiful spring), and soon the whole area was known as Schönbrunn. Matthias
knew a thing or two about springs and fountains. At his coronation in Frankfurt,
and only his, no matter what ill-researched guidebooks tell you, the fountain on
Römerplatz actually spouted wine instead of water, a gloriously happy event
fondly recalled by locals even 400 years on.

Several restaurants and cafés are scattered through the park. The two we used
– Café Residenz right next to the palace and Café Gloriette in the similarly
named structure that crowns the hill – are probably the two more expensive ones,
and even here prices were no different from similar establishments elsewhere in
Vienna. The taste and service were equally correct.

Europe’s oldest preserved zoo and largest palm house are also inside the
park. They require separate admission fees and probably a separate day, too.

Best Way To Get Around:

Schloss Schönbrunn is easily reached from downtown Vienna on subway U4 or
from the Westbahnhof by trams 52 and 58. The gardens are massive but mostly flat,
except, of course, the steep ascend to the Gloriette. A panorama Bimmelbahn runs
along the edges of the gardens and through some sections of the park – the full
circle takes about an hour.

Admission to the park is free, but entry into Schloss Schönbrunn is not cheap.
The Grand Tour of 40 rooms costs 11.50€, while the shorter Imperial Tour of only
22 rooms is 8.90€. Admission to the Kronprinzengarten (Privy Garden) is 2€,
the Gloriette Panorama Terrace is 1.99€ (!), and the Maze and Labyrinth is
2.60€. A Classic Pass for 14.90€ includes admission to all of the above, as well
as a booklet with discount vouchers. The main advantage of the Classic Pass is
the ability to enter the palace without delay – on our visit it saved us around
30 seconds, but in high season, it may well be hours. Of the additional sights,
only the maze was really worth it, but some of the discount vouchers are for
other top sights in Vienna.

The hill opposite the palace is crowned by the glorious Gloriette. This high- baroque pavilion was completed in 1780 to commemorate the famous Austrian victory over Frederick the Great’s Prussian army at Kolin in 1757. It is decorated with appropriately pompous figures and victory symbols. During our visit, an Austrian cadet corps was lining up for a group photo on its steps – probably reliving mentally what the French term "la gloire" of Austria’s imperial history.

All the way through the gardens, the Gloriette draws the eye to the top of the hill, and, inevitably, by the time you reach the Neptune fountain at the bottom the hill, it is useless to fight the urge to drag your body up to the top of the hill, too. There are two ways to the top – follow either the zigzagging paths on both sides of the lawn or the steeper but shorter straight path to the right. At first, the Gloriette partly disappear, but increasingly more of it is visible as one nears the top of the hill, until it is revealed in all its glory with its reflecting pool.

All the way up the hill, the best views are naturally to your back. The views from the top are great, but we hardly had time to glance down as we rushed to the Café Gloriette inside the building. There are no views from here, except when the doors are actually opened, but the inside of the building itself is appropriately grand and a fine setting for a café. The menu is typical of such a café-restaurant, and prices are surprisingly reasonable. My wife had an excellent salad (6.40€) loaded with cheese, cold meats, and vegetables. I ordered two small Frankfurters (3.50€) for the toddler – in most of the non-Viennese world, these thin Frankfurter sausages are of course known as Viennese sausages or simply Wieners. I was planning to order a sandwich, but at the spur of the moment, requested a vegetable strudel (6.80€), and what a glorious decision that was. It tasted fantastic and the unexpected accompanying large, fresh salad complemented it perfectly. Service was similarly correct and fast. Even after discounting the effort of dragging oneself up the hill and the appetite worked up in the process, I would rate the meal worthy of its setting.

The views from the Gloriette down to the palace and gardens, as well as over the cityscape of Vienna, are marvelous. Access to the viewing platform proper is included in the Classic Pass or 1.99€ (no doubt contributing to the occasional shortage of 1-cent coins). The view from the top is great but hardly better than from the free platforms one story down. Walking downhill is, of course, easier than going up and rewarded by the continuously marvelous views of Schönbrunn.

Café Gloriette is open daily from 9am until the park gates close. There are live- music weekends from 9 to 11:30am. Tel: 879-1311.

The Schönbrunn area functioned as hunting forest to the Habsburg family for centuries. It was a convenient half-day ride outside Vienna, and only a small hunting lodge served as accommodations. Things became more gentile in the mid-17th century, when the widow of Ferdinand II had a small pleasure palace erected here. The palace was soon destroyed by the Turks, but after they were finally defeated by Prince Eugene, the future Joseph I instructed that a palace to rival Versailles should be erected. His successors suspended the work, and it took a feminine touch to see completion of the palace as we know it today.

After her marriage in 1736, Princess Maria Theresa received the palace as a summer residence and promptly had it renovated and enlarged. Nikolaus Pacassi received the commission to complete and enlarge the palace. He followed a strict baroque architectural layout, but, upon Maria Theresa’s orders, the interior decorations are a more feminine and relaxed Rococo. He also changed the exterior color of the palace from its white, blue, and pink to the now familiar Schönbrunn yellow. Ever since, Schloss Schönbrunn had been a favored summer residence of the Habsburg family.

The Imperial Tour of the palace interior includes 22 rooms, mostly those used by Austria’s penultimate emperor, Franz Joseph, and his wife Elizabeth, better known as Sisi. Although these rooms are not plain or simple by any stretch of the imagination, they are a lot less opulent than other palaces of lesser nobles from the same period. This is particularly noticeable in the apartments of the emperor. Kaiser Franz Joseph was known for his almost Spartan lifestyle and used a small, simple iron bed for most of his life. He actually died in the one in his bedroom here on November 22, 1916.

Things are slightly more luxurious in the apartments of the empress, which also included the first and only separate toilet room in the palace – still one more than at Versailles! The dining room table is laid out as it would have been in the early 20th century. When dining with family, Franz Joseph would set aside at most 40 minutes. He was a famously hard worker, but, unfortunately, it took more than hard work to successfully rule an empire.

A highlight of the tour is the 40m long Großen Galerie (Great Gallery). This ballroom’s finest moments were in 1814-15, when it was the primary setting for the balls accompanying the Vienna Congress, which decided the fate of most of Europe following the defeat of Napoleon. More recently, it was the setting for the meeting in 1961 between John F Kennedy and Nikita Chruschtschow

Using the audio guide included in the admission fee, touring these rooms take around 40 minutes. The ever-present group tours are ultimately the main determinant at how fast or slow one can progress through the rooms.

The Grand Tour of the Schönbrunn interior involves 40 rooms, including the 22 seen on the Imperial Tour. It starts as the Imperial Tour, but in the Ceremony Hall, the majority of visitors head for the exit and things get significantly less crowded for those heading towards the apartments of Maria Theresa. The crowds deservedly miss the best part of the palace.

The Maria Theresa apartments are naturally older than those used by Kaiser Franz Ferdinand, with decorations generally the originals from the 18th century. Nowhere is the feminine touch of the female royals more visible than here, with some of the decorations actually painted by the princesses.

The first room of this tour is the blue Chinese Salon with hand-painted wallpaper. In this room, on November 11, 1918, Kaiser Karl relinquished all governmental power at the declaration of the Austrian Republic. However, he refused to relinquish his claim to the Austrian throne, and he, as well as the rest of the royal family, went into exile. (Only one princess gave up her very remote claims to the throne and was allowed to stay in Austria and keep her family fortune.)

The room with impressive black Japanese-lacquer wall paneling was dedicated to the memory of Emperor Franz Stephan, husband of Maria Theresa, following his death in 1765. Less respectfully, Napoleon Bonaparte used this as a study during his occupation of Vienna. (Napoleon on credibility: "If you say you are going to take Vienna, take Vienna.") The adjacent Napoleon Room was his bedroom but is more famous as the room where the King of Rome spent most of his short life. For political reasons, Napoleon married Marie Louise, eldest daughter of Franz I – the last Holy Roman emperor and first Austrian emperor. Napoleon Bonaparte crowned their son, Napoleon Franz (1811-32), king of Rome. Following Napoleon’s defeat in 1814, the young Napoleon Franz returned to Vienna and spent the rest of his life in virtual isolation in Schloss Schönbrunn. The boy was given the title Duke of Reichstadt in order for him to take an appropriate place at Vienna’s protocol obsessed court. (Napoleon Franz’s very impressive rocking cot is in the in the Hofburg.)

Further rooms have exquisite decorations and show off the Rococo art that Maria Theresa favored. It is somewhat ironic that despite centuries of hostilities, this more French interpretation of the heavier Italian baroque won the most favor in Austria. The Millionenzimmer (Millions Room) is particularly impressive and named after the expensive rosewood paneling with Indian and Persian miniatures. The only surviving ceremonial bed of the Habsburg court is in the Reichenzimmer. The bed was originally used in the Hofburg and dates from 1736 to the last years in which the emperor still went to bed in public.

The almost 9€ admission fee to Schönbrunn is not cheap, but it is definitely false economy to save the additional 2.60€ that the admission to the Maria Theresa apartments require.

The enormous 2km² park behind the palace is one of Vienna’s favorite sights. The public had free access to it since the last year of Maria Theresa’s reign, and with around 5 million annual visitors, it is considered the most popular monitored sight in Austria. The park is huge, and to see all of it properly would take more than day – comfortable shoes are highly advisable.

Although there are 13 entrances to the park, most visitors access it from either side of the palace itself. (Hohenbergstraße gives direct and easier access to Gloriette.) The park is mostly in a mid-18th-century French baroque style with Austrian influences, such as the Tirol garden and the allowance for more natural landscaping. However, these Austrian aspects are somewhat hidden, with most visitors rightly focusing on the more strict baroque features of the main garden. Trees are in straight lines and trimmed to perfection. Statues and fountains are scattered through the garden, and new features are to be discovered at every twist and turn. Remember – like the palace itself, the gardens were supposed to mirror and surpass Versailles.

Directly to the east of the palace is the small but fine Kronprinzengarten (Privy Garden). Admission is 2€ or included in the Classic Pass. At our visit in late April, it was already past its spring peak, and, in any case, all of it could be seen for free through the not-too-thick fence.

More impressive is the view from the palace to the Gloriette on the opposing hill. The garden in this section is treeless and almost forcing the eye to look up to the hill and its crowing architecture. At the foot of the hill is the large and impressive Neptune fountain.

Close by is the Irrgarten (maze). Although this attraction is probably aimed primarily at children, I have to admit that I got into the spirit of the thing within seconds of being enclosed by the around 2m-high hedges. The joys of traveling with toddlers include the opportunity to run around like a nutcase without generally being considered odd. Finding our way to the pavilion in the center proved more complicated than anticipated. At least we managed it on our own. Several times we passed a French couple with two toddlers who were already inside the maze when we entered, and they were still struggling when we were about to leave the viewing platform. It was only the smaller boy’s insistence to enter an "obscure" passageway, against the advice of both parents and older brother, but with encouragement in four languages and hand signals from the viewing platform that saw them through to the target. The adjacent labyrinth is a fun walkway with several play instruments – once again aimed at children, but strong enough to endure adults, too. Admittance is included in the Classic Pass – otherwise, it’s 2.60€ well spent!

Despite all the hoopla in Vienna over Sisi (Empress Elizabeth, wife of Kaiser Franz Joseph), Maria Theresa (1717-1780) was the one female Habsburger who really mattered. Although she secured the election of her husband as Holy Roman emperor, she was never empress, but rather archduchess of Austria. (Contrary to prior expectations, she actively ruled Austria while her husband concentrated on gardening and creating Europe’s first true zoo.)

In the final years of his life, her father, Karl IV, made a considerable effort to convince the powers of Europe to accept the Pragmatika Sanctio, which would allow his daughter to ascent the throne. Under Salic law, only males could inherit, and although Karl IV accepted that Maria Theresa would never be able to become Holy Roman emperor, he hoped to secure her control of the significant property ruled by the Habsburgs. In the process, he gave up several claims to territory but oddly failed to build up the Austrian army in case his daughter would have to defend her rights militarily.

In 1740, upon Karl IV’s death, Maria Theresa became archduchess of Austria (and later also queen of Hungary and Bohemia). The two other claimants to the Habsburg possessions, the rulers of Bavaria and Saxony, were considered too weak either individually or in concert to seriously challenge for the Austrian throne. It, therefore, was rather a surprise when trouble came from Prussia, which had no legal claims to the Habsburg properties but serious desires. Frederick the Great offered Maria Theresa military assistance against her enemies in exchange for Silesia. His offered declined, Prussia decided to take Silesia anyway and the fight was on. In the 8 years of the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748), Maria Theresa managed to beat off attacks by Prussia, France, Bavaria, Saxony, and Spain. During her 40-year rule, Maria Theresa managed to keep her geographically, politically, and racially divided empire together. The only Habsburg property she lost was Silesia.

Although she managed to secure the election as Holy Roman emperor of both her husband Franz Stephan of Loraine in 1747 and later their son Joseph II in 1765, the running of the Habsburg estates remained firmly within her personal control. She was an able ruler, and although she introduced useful reforms, real enlightenment was only to come later. She bore 16 children – not an unusually high number for the time (one of her daughters had 18). Of her children, 12 survived into adulthood – the most famous, Marie Antoinette, became a rather unfortunate queen of France.

Du, glückliches Österreich, heirate!

A famous quote, often erroneously attributed to Maria Theresa goes, "while other nations do battle, you lucky Austria, you wed." The Habsburg family has successfully increased their power through the ages through clever marriage diplomacy. The most famous marriage of a Maria Theresa offspring, Maria Antoinette to French king Louis XVI was in the long run of course something of a disaster. More successful was the marriage of Maximilian I (1459 to 1519) to Maria of Burgundy, which brought most of what is modern day Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, and parts of France under Habsburg control. (The above quote most likely originated from that marriage.) His son, Philip, married Joanna the Mad, which gave the Habsburgs control of Spain and the whole Spanish empire with colonies in the Americas and Asia. Karl V (Charles V 1500-1558) truly ruled an empire on which the sun never set. Similar successful marriages brought Hungary and Bohemia under Habsburg control.

In the Middle Ages, life was indeed often short, brutish, and nasty – even for female royals. Marriages were mostly for diplomatic purposes and many a queen died in childbirth. Several Habsburgs managed to secure even more property from second and the occasional third marriage. Franz I’s unequalled four marriages came too late in the modern era for it to bring significant property gains. Maria Theresa married only once, and although her husband had a famously wandering eye, she remained faithful and very much in love with him.

One of the best-known quotable quotes on Maria Theresa’s achievements often, but almost certainly apocryphally, attributed to Frederick the Great goes that the one time the Habsburg family produces a real man, it is a woman!

Her greatest adversary, Prussia’s King Frederick the Great, who had little time or respect for woman in general, fought the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years’ War against her and deprived her of Silesia. Upon hearing of her death in 1780, he remarked, "This woman’s achievements were those of a great man. I always respected her. She brought honor to her gender."