Tourist attractions in Vienna : Schloss Schönbrunn

Schönbrunn Palace is a former imperial summer residence in 13. district of Vienna, Hietzing. The 1441-room palace is one of the most important cultural monuments and the most-visited sight in Austria. Schönbrunn Palace was placed, together with its gardens and the zoo, on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites since 1996. Founded in 1752, Tiergarten Schönbrunn in the palace gardens is the oldest existing zoo in the world.

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The history of Schönbrunn site goes back to the Middle Age, when the whole estate included a water-mill together with a farm and vineyards and was called Katterburg. In the year 1569 the whole area was purchased by Emperor Maximilian II in order to serve as the court's recreational hunting ground. The name Schönbrunn (beautiful spring), has its roots in an spring discovered by Emperor Matthias on one of his hunting excursions in 1612, but it is first mentioned in 1642, as the name of the splendid palace, which was built as the residence of Eleonora Gonzaga after the death of her husband, Ferdinand II. She had laid out magnificent gardens around the palace which became a setting for court celebrations with special entertainments and performances. During the second Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683, the palace and park at Schönbrunn were destroyed. 

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After the Turkish attack, Emperor Leopold I commissioned the well-known Austrian architect Johann Bernard Fischer von Erlach to design a new building. Construction began in 1696 and after four years the central section was complete and habitable. Further progress was however halted due to the outbreak of the war of the Spanish Succession in 1701.

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The Schönbrunn Palace in its present form was extended and rebuilt after designs by the architect Nikolaus Pacassi between 1743 and 1763, during the reign of empress Maria Theresa. Under her reign, the former hunting lodge was transformed into a magnificent imperial residence with costly interiors in the Rococo style, with the palace becoming the center of court and political life. Franz Joseph spent his last years in the Schönbrunn Palace and died there, at the age of 86, on 21 November 1916. At the end of the monarchy in 1918, the newly founded Austrian Republic became the owner of Schönbrunn Palace.

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Today, about forty rooms of the Schönbrunn palace are open to the public, which include the apartments of Emperor Franz Joseph and his wife Elisabeth (sisi), apartments once occupied by Maria Theresa, Great Gallery, Hall of Ceremonies, chapel and more. The whole complex, with its garden and numerous attractions in it, is visited annually by over 5 million tourists from all over the world. Schönbrunn's Great Parterre is also the venue for Summer Night Concert Schönbrunn, an annual outdoor concert held by the Vienna Philharmonic since 2004.

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The central section of the palace gardens is called the Great Parterre, a large French garden consists of formally aligned flowerbeds between the palace and the Neptune Fountain. The Great Parterre of Schönbrunn is lined with 32 sculptures, that represent mythological deities and virtues. The sculptures were created between 1773 and 1780 under the direction of Johann Wilhelm Beyer, a German artist and garden designer. Other sculptures are distributed throughout the garden and palace forecourt, including fountains and pools.

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Neptune Fountain
The Neptune Fountain at the foot of the Gloriette hill was designed to be the crowning monument of the Great Parterre. Commissioned by Empress Maria Theresa, work on the fountain began in 1776 and was completed within four years, just prior to the death of the empress. The overall design was very probably done by Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von Hohenberg, while the sculptural group  was executed by Wilhelm Beyer. The Baroque sculpture group depicts Neptune, roman god the sea, stands at the center of the figure group, while Thetis, the goddess of water, kneels to his right, asking him to favor her son Achilles on his voyage to Troy. In the nineteenth century, a bank of evergreen trees was planted behind the white figural group to provide a dark contrast.

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The Schönbrunn Gloriette
Erected under the reign of Emperor Joseph II and Empress Maria Theresa in 1775, Gloriette was the last building constructed in the garden according to the plans of Austrian imperial architect Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von Hohenberg to serve as both a focal point and a lookout point for the garden. It was used as a dining hall and festival hall as well as a breakfast room for emperor Franz Joseph I. The dining hall, which was used up until the end of the monarchy, today has a café in it, and on the roof an observation platform overlooks Vienna. The Gloriette's decorative sculptures were made by the famous Salzburg sculptor Johann Baptist von Hagenauer. The Gloriette was destroyed in the Second World War, but had already been restored by 1947, and was restored again in 1995.

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Other attractions in the park include the Tiergarten Schönbrunn ( the oldest zoo in the world), Palmenhaus ( large greenhouse featuring around 4,500 plant species from around the world), Wüstenhaus (a desert botanical exhibit), the Wagenburg ( museum of carriages and vehicles used by the imperial household of the Austrian Empire), Roman Ruin (Designed by Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von Hohenberg and built in 1778), Orangery ( the largest Baroque orangery in the world after  the one in Versailles, served as the winter quarters for citrus trees as well as imperial court festivities) and the Maze.


Text Sources:
wikipedia.org/.../Schönbrunn_Palace
wikipedia.org/.../Sculptures_in_the_Schönbrunn_Garden
wikipedia.org/.../Gloriette