Schönbrunn Palace is a former imperial summer residence in
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
,
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
. One of the most important cultural monuments in the country, since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna. The palace and gardens illustrate the tastes, interests, and aspirations of successive Habsburg monarchs.
Early history
In the year 1569,
Holy Roman EmperorThe Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a Middle Ages ruler, who as German King had in addition received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope of the Holy Roman Church, and after the 16th century, the elected monarch governing the Holy Roman Empire, a Central...
Maximilian IIMaximilian II was king of Bohemia from 1562, king of Hungary from 1563, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1564 and king of the Romans until his death. He was a member of the House of Habsburg.-Biography:...
purchased a large
floodplain||-||-||-||-||-||-||-||}A floodplain, or flood plain, is flat or nearly flat land adjacent to a stream or river that experiences occasional or periodic flooding...
of the
Wien riverThe Wien is a river that flows through the city of Vienna. It is 34 kilometres long , of which 15 km are within the city. Its drainage basin covers an area of 230 km² , both in the city and in the neighbouring Wienerwald....
beneath a hill, situated between
MeidlingMeidling is the 12th district of Vienna . It is located just southwest of the central districts, south of the Wienfluss, west of the Gürtel belt, and east and southeast of Schönbrunn palace...
and
HietzingHietzing is the 13th municipal District of Vienna . It is located west of the central districts, west of Meidling...
, where a former owner, in 1548, had erected a
mansionA mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. realtors define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
called
Katterburg. The emperor ordered the area to be fenced and put
gameA game is a structured activity, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more concerned with the expression of ideas...
there such as
pheasantPheasants is subfamily of Phasianidae in the order Galliformes.Pheasants are characterised by strong sexual dimorphism, males being highly ornate with bright colours and adornments such as wattles and long tails. Males are usually larger than females and have longer tails. Males play no part in...
s,
duckDuck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered ducks...
s,
deerDeer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. They include for example Moose, Red Deer, Reindeer, Roe and Chital. Animals from related families within the order Artiodactyla are often also considered to be deer – these include muntjac and water deer...
and
boarWild boar is a species of pig, including at least 16 subspecies, and part of the biological family Suidae. It is the wild ancestor of the domestic pig, an animal with which it freely hybridises. Wild boar are native across much of Central Europe, the Mediterranean Region and much of Asia as far...
, in order to serve as the court's recreational hunting ground. In a small separate part of the area, "exotic" birds like
turkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
s and
peafowlThe term peafowl can refer to the two species of bird in the genus Pavo of the pheasant family, Phasianidae. The African Congo Peafowl is placed in its own genus Afropavo and is not dealt with here. Peafowl are best known for the male's extravagant tail, which it displays as part of courtship...
were kept. Fishponds were built, too.
The name
Schönbrunn (meaning "beautiful well"), has its roots in an artesian well from which water was consumed by the court.
During the next century, the area was used as a hunting and recreation ground. Especially Eleonore Gonzaga, who loved hunting, spent much time there and was bequeathed the area as her widow's residence after the death of her husband,
Ferdinand IIFerdinand II , of the House of Habsburg, Holy Roman Emperor , King of Bohemia , King of Hungary .-Life:...
. From 1638 to 1643, she added a palace to the Katterburg mansion, while in 1642 came the first mention of the name "Schönbrunn" on an invoice. The origins of the Schönbrunn
orangeryAn orangery was a building frequently found in the grounds of fashionable residences from the 17th to the 19th century and given a classicising architectural form. The orangery was similar to a greenhouse or conservatory...
seem to go back to Eleonore Gonzaga as well.
In the Turkish siege of 1683, the buildings were destroyed, and never restored.
Modern era
Emperor Leopold I| align=right | Leopold I Habsburg , Holy Roman emperor, King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, was the second son of the emperor Ferdinand III and his first wife Maria Anna of Spain. His maternal grandparents were Philip III of Spain and Margarita of Austria...
gave architect
Johann Bernhard Fischer von ErlachJohann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach was probably the most influential Austrian architect of the Baroque period.Architectural tastes throughout the Habsburg Empire were profoundly influenced by his ideas, as articulated in A Plan of Civil and Historical Architecture , one of the first and most...
the order to design a new palace. His first draft was a very utopian one, dealing with different antique and contemporary ideals and trying to top its role model
VersaillesVersailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial center...
. His second draft showed a smaller and more realistic building. Construction began in 1696 and after three years the first festivities were held in the newly built middle part of the palace.
Few parts of the first palace survived that century, because especially
Maria Theresa of Austria
to whom the estate was made as a present by her father (who, himself, had shown but little interest in it) had decided to make it the imperial summer residence, after she was crowned. She ordered her architect-of-the-court
Nicolò PacassiNicolò Pacassi, also known as Nikolaus Pacassi was an Austrian architect of Italian descent. He was born in Wiener Neustadt in Lower Austria in a family of merchants from the Gorizia. In 1753, he was appointed court architect to Maria Theresa of Austria...
to reshape the palace and garden in a way of the style of the
RococoRococo is a style of 18th century French art and interior design. Rococo rooms were designed as total works of art with elegant and ornate furniture, small sculptures, ornamental mirrors, and tapestry complementing architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings...
era. At the end of the so-called
Theresianian epoch, Schönbrunn Palace was a vigorous centre of Austria's empire and the imperial family, and stayed their summer residence until the more-or-less "abdication" of Charles I of Austria, in 1918.
In the 19th century one name is closely connected with Schönbrunn's, Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria. He was born there, spent the majority of his life there and died there on November 21, 1916 in his sleeping room. Through the course of his 68-years reign, Schönbrunn Palace was seen as a
Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) and remodelled in accordance with its history.
Gardens
The sculpted garden space between the palace and the
Neptune Well (viewn towards
Gloriette, which is on top of the hill) is called the
Great Parterre ("Great Ground Floor"). The French garden, a big part of the area, was planned by
Jean Trehet in 1695. It contains, among others, a
mazeA maze is a complex tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways, but technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth...
.
The complex however includes by far more attractions: Besides the
TiergartenTiergarten Schönbrunn or Zoo Vienna is a zoo located on the grounds of the famous Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria...
, world's oldest existing zoo (founded in 1752), an orangerie erected around 1755, staple luxuries of European palaces of its type, a
Palm houseA palm house is a greenhouse that is specialised for the growing of palms and other tropical and subtropical plants. Palm houses require constant heat and were built as status symbols in Victorian Britain...
(replacing, by 1882, around ten earlier and smaller glass houses in the western part of the park) is noteworthy. Western parts were turned into
English gardenThe English garden or English landscape park is a style of landscape garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, replacing the more formal, symmetrical Garden à la française of the 17th century as the principal gardening style of Europe....
style in 1828–1852. At the outmost western edge, a
botanical gardenBotanical gardens grow a wide variety of plants primarily to categorize and document for scientific purposes. Botanists and horticulturalists tend the flora and maintain the garden's library and herbarium of dried and documented plant material. Botanical gardens may also serve to entertain and...
going back to an earlier
arboretumAn arboretum is a collection of trees. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...
was re-arranged in 1828, when the
Old Palm House was built. This one is currently being restored and partly will be house a modern enclosure for Orang-Utans, besides a restaurant and office rooms. It will be re-opened in 2009.
Sculptures
Lining the Great Parterre are '
32 sculpturesThe sculptures in the Schönbrunn Garden were generally made between 1773 and 1780 under the direction of William Beyer. During the execution many sculptors were employed, among them Johann Baptist Hagenauer.The numbering shows the situation of the statues....
, which represent deities and virtues.
Gloriette
The garden axis points towards a 60 meters higher hill, which since 1775 is crowned by the
GlorietteA gloriette is a building in a garden erected on a site that is elevated with respect to the surroundings...
structure (remember that
Fischer von Erlach had initially planned to erect the main palace on top of that hill).
Maria Theresa decided
Gloriette to be designed to glorify Habsburg's power and the
Just WarJust War theory is a doctrine of military ethics of Roman philosophical and Catholic origin studied by moral theologians, ethicists and international policy makers which holds that a conflict can and ought to meet the criteria of philosophical, religious or political justice, provided it follows...
[a war that would be carried out of 'necessity' and lead to peace], and thereby ordered to recycle
"otherwise useless stone" which was left from the almost-demolition of Schloss Neugebäude. Same material was also to be used for the Roman ruin.
The Gloriette today houses a
caféA café , also spelled cafe, is an informal restaurant offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches. This differs from a coffee house, which is a limited-menu establishment which focuses on coffee sales. Depending on the jurisdiction, a café may be licensed to serve alcohol. The term...
and gives the visitor a view of the city.
Roman Ruin
Originally known as the Ruin of Carthage, the
Roman Ruin was designed by the architect Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von Hohenberg and erected as an entirely new architectural feature in 1778. Fully integrated into its parkland surroundings, this architectural ensemble should be understood as a picturesque horticultural feature and not simply as a ruin, which due to lack of maintenance it had increasingly grown to resemble prior to its recent restoration.
The fashion for picturesque ruins that became widespread with the rise of the Romantic movement soon after the middle of the 18th century symbolise both the decline of once great powers and the preservation of the remains of a heroic past. Erected at the same time not far from the Roman Ruin, the Obelisk Fountain was intended to complete the iconographic programme of the park at Schönbrunn as a symbol of stability and permanence.
The Roman Ruin consists of a rectangular pool enclosed by a massive arch with lateral walls, evoking the impression of an ancient edifice slowly crumbling into the ground. In the pool in front of the ruin is a seemingly haphazard arrangement of stone fragments supporting a figural group which symbolises the rivers
DanubeThe Danube is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg rivers which join at the German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows...
and
EnnsEnns may refer to:* Enns , Upper Austria, Austria* Enns , a surname* Enns , a southern tributary of the Danube River...
.
The Schönbrunn Palace Silver Coin
The palace was recently selected as the main motif of a high value commemorative coin: the Austrian 10 euro The Palace of Schoenbrunn Silver coin, minted in October 8 2003. The obverse shows the central part of the frontage of the palace behind one of the great fountains in the open space.
Recent history
Following the downfall of the monarchy in 1918 the newly founded Austrian Republic became the owner of Schönbrunn Palace and preserved, as a museum, the rooms and chambers.
After WWII and during the
Allied Occupation of AustriaThe Austrian State Treaty or Austrian Independence Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state. It was signed on May 15, 1955, in Vienna at the Schloss Belvedere among the Allied occupying powers and the Austrian government...
(1945-1955) Schönbrunn Palace, which was empty at the time, was requisitioned to provide offices for both the British Delegation to the Allied Commission for Austria and for the Headquarters for the small British Military Garrison present in Vienna.
Later it was used for important events such as the meeting between
John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
and
Nikita KhrushchevNikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
in 1961.
UNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945...
catalogued Schönbrunn Palace on the World Heritage List in 1996, together with its gardens, as a remarkable
BaroqueBaroque is an artistic style prevalent from the late 16th century to the early 18th century. The popularity and success of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church, which had decided at the time of the Council of Trent that the arts should communicate religious themes in...
ensemble and example of synthesis of the arts (
GesamtkunstwerkA gesamtkunstwerk is a work of art that makes use of all or many art forms or strives to do so...
).
Activities at Schloss Schönbrunn today
The Schloss is a very popular tourist destination today with often long lines for entrance. At the official website tickets can be purchased in advance for tours. In addition to tours, many classical concerts featuring the music of W. A. Mozart and his contemporaries can be enjoyed with the added benefit of more time in the spectacular halls, Orangerie, or Schlosstheater. Concerts, dinner concerts with tours included or packages with dinner, tour, concert and cruise are available and can be booked in advance through the firm of
ClassicticClassictic is a service that provides information and ticket sales for classical music events on a multi-lingual internet portal. Classictic acts as an agent for concert organizers, opera houses, orchestras and musicians, facilitating the primary sale of tickets to their events as an auxiliary...
.
Features in movies
The gardens and palace have been the location for various movies, such as the
SissiSissi is a 1955 film directed by Ernst Marischka and starring Romy Schneider, Karlheinz Böhm, Magda Schneider, Uta Franz, Gustav Knuth, Vilma Degischer and Josef Meinrad. First of a trilogy of romantic films about the Austrian Princess Sisi, Elisabeth of Bavaria.-Plot:It is 1853...
trilogy in 1950s, in
A Breath of ScandalA Breath of Scandal is a 1960 film adapted from Ferenc Molnar's stage play Olympia. It stars Sophia Loren, Maurice Chevalier, John Gavin and Angela Lansbury and was directed by Michael Curtiz. The film is set at the turn of the 20th century and features lush technicolor photography of Vienna and...
with
Sophia LorenSophia Loren is an Italian film actress and an international sex symbol. In 1961, she won an Academy Award for Best Actress for Two Women, becoming the first actor to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance....
and briefly in James Bond's
The Living DaylightsThe Living Daylights is the fifteenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the first to star Timothy Dalton as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond...
.
External links