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Home Page > Travelogues > Austria > Vienna > Schonbrunn Palace Other Chapters in the Vienna section:
Schonbrunn Palace is both a museum and a park, and what a large park
it is! Brilliant decorated with flowers spread out in intricate designs,
the
The Palace building itself, shown in the second photo, is quite an incredible structure. It was colored brilliant golden yellow as this was the favorite color of a former Austrian queen, and was built up from a sports lodge catering to nobility to the summer home of Austrian royalty (along with being the deathbed of Austria's last emporer). The royal apartments are now a museum, and well worth a visit particularly to get the history of the waning years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before World War I. The museum celebrates the palace's best-known tenant, Emporer Franz Josef I
(note 1) who lived there much of his life. As the museum told his story,
Franz Josef was ve The museum also devoted considerable attention to one of Franz Josef's wives,
"Sissi," or Queen Elizabeth of Austria. In my travels to Hungary and the
Czech Republic, I noted Sissi's name being mentioned in various palaces or
museums. It seems that she was well liked, perhaps both by royalty and
commonfolk. However, the Schonbrunn museum
Having finished the museum tour, I went outside to walk the beautiful grounds. The first buildings I visited was the Orangerie and the Schonbrunn Cafe toward the grounds entrance. The Orangerie was practially orange in color and had a fresh paint job. The Cafe was a good place for lunch before the walk ahead. The second photograph shows the main palace garden from the back of the
palace to the Gloriette in the distance. From the floral patterns, you
would probably deduce that the first two photographs were taken almost from the
same spot but in opposite directions -- and you would be right. The
remarkable features of the gardens here were the impressi The second photo gives the mistaken impression that the Gloriette, shown up close in the third photograph, is closer than it really is. In fact, it was one heck of a hike up a steep hill to get to it. The Gloriette is just a decorative arch that lords over the grounds, but now merely serves as a hi-brow cafe. Off the sides of the photograph are four very large statues of Austrian warriors that guard the side entrances. The Palace grounds have many other features -- most notably the old Viennese city zoo.
I call it
old because is has been continuously active since 1852, which was amazing since
it was hard hit
during both World Wars. Several museums elsewhere
in Vienna make special
I made my way around the park to the front of the Schonbrunn Palace, where I saw a rather fantastic spectacle. On the marble steps that graced the palace entrance was dressed a troupe of singers and performers dressed in period costume (by "period", of course I mean the glory days of the mid-19th century). Among them were several children cutely dressed in old-style dresses. I unfortunately got there at the end, and thus could not follow what they were doing beyond posing for photographers from the horde of tourists. Certainly while downtown Vienna has plenty enough going for it in terms of attractions and history, a visit to the outskirts and the Schonbrunn Palace is a must for any visitor. Clearly it is one of the more impressive palaces around and a sheer joy to walk through. Other Chapters in the Vienna
section:
Notes: (1) Name of the emporer and some other details from Wikipedia, as my own notes have disappeared since the original postings of the Vienna pages. Trip Taken 15-16 June 2002 -- Page Last Updated 12 September 2006 -- (C) 2006 Tom Galvin |
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Palace
gardens are a joy to look at, as you can see in the first photo. Schonbrunn Palace
is located about a mile
to the west of the Museum Quarter. I chose to walk, which took me roughly
a half-hour. There wasn't so much to see along the way, so taking the
public transportation is recommended.
ry
much loved by the people and had a strong belief in maintaining connection with
them. He was not above allowing commoners to come into his quarters to
express grievances or offer suggestions for the good of the empire. He was
also a believer in the virtue of hard work -- I recall that the tour guide (who
spoke in English) described his workday as typically beginning at 5:30 AM and
ending late at night, taking only Sundays off. While admirable, my own
perspective of history suggests that the troubles of the Empire (especially
because of its volatile ethnic situation) were probably better solved by someone
with a different work habit. We'll never know.
openly
told the sad story of Sissi's poor mental (and eventually physical) health --
including a 19th century-style eating disorder where her only sustenance during
the day was strained raw beef juice so she could stay thin.
ve
array of hedges on both sides (you can see a little from the left side of the
second photo) -- very tall and cut almost perfectly to appear like a single
green wall. The stony structure in the near distance in the Neptunor, a
large stone fountain and multi-level pool.
reference
to the zoo, citing its role as introducing the giraffe and other African
'oddities' to the European landscape. There were also two botanical gardens, one
of which is shown in the fourth photograph. The church in the distance is
actually outside the Schonbrunn grounds, but it complemented the scene very well
nonetheless. There were also plenty of artificial roman ruins (a common
feature among European palace gardens), a Japanese garden, plenty of monuments
and memorials to various Austrian figures, and numerous
small cafés and restaurants. For example, the fifth photograph shows a
restaurant fashioned as a hunting lodge well away from the palace.
