Schonbrunn Palace

Schönbrunn Palace is one of the most important cultural monuments in Austria and since the 1960s has also been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna.

Schonbrunn Palace dates back to the Middle Ages when it was commonly referred to as Katterburg. Over the following centuries, Schonbrunn was home to many prominent figures which included Hermann Bayer in 1548, who was mayor of Vienna and who was responsible for transforming Schonbrunn into a manorial estate.

Soon after the end of the monarchy the population of Vienna discovered the park as an attractive recreational area. Eventually the palace was also opened to the public, drawing around 2 million visitors annually. The park and all the other attractions at Schönbrunn together see a further 6 million visitors each year, giving a grand total of 8 million visitors to the imposing palace complex each year.

At the 20th session of the World Heritage Committee held in December1996 Schönbrunn Palace was put on the list of UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Sites, an institution founded in 1972. Inclusion in this list confirms the importance of the palace and its gardens as a Baroque work of art.

The sculpted garden space between the palace and the Sun Fountain is called the Great Parterre. The French garden, a big part of the area, was planned by Jean Trehet in 1695. It contains, among other things, a maze.

The complex however includes many more attractions: Besides the Tiergarten, the world’s oldest existing zoo (founded in 1752), an orangerie erected around 1755, staple luxuries of European palaces of its type, a palm house (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 garden style in 1828–1852. At the outmost western edge, a botanical garden going back to an earlier arboretum was re-arranged in 1828, when the Old Palm House was built. A modern enclosure for Orangutans, was restored besides a restaurant and office rooms in 2009.

The entrance to the park is free, you have to pay only if you want to see palace’s interior. There are 3 kinds of tours: the bigger the tour, the dearer the ticket. The imperial tour (small/cheap tour) visits 22 rooms, which is quite enough. Together with the ticket they give you a free audioguide and it takes about 40 minutes to go around these 22 rooms and listen to their stories.

The interior of the palace is really amazing and the information provided by the audioguide very good and accurate. At the end of the tour there is a shop with souvenirs; you can find interesting things there, but it’s a bit expensive –though worth the trip!

You can then go out and walk and get lost inside the park or walk up the up hill and enjoy the palace view from the Gloriette.