Schönbrunn Palace is one of the most important cultural monuments in Austria and since the 1860s has also been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna. The palace and gardens illustrate the tastes, interests and aspirations of successive Habsburg monarchs. 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 1.5 million visitors annually. The park and all the other attractions at Schönbrunn together see a further 5.2 million visitors each year, giving a grand total of 6.7 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. If you have any further questions we would be pleased to answer them at any time.

In the year 1569, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II purchased the Katterburg, which was located on a large area between Meidling and Hietzing where today Schönbrunn's parks and different buildings are situated. He showed interest in the newly founded zoo, the Tiergarten Schönbrunn, and tried to establish not only a systematic maintenance of wild animals, but also a garden of rare and exotic plants. He is justifiably called the creator of Schönbrunn's garden arrangement.

The new name, Schönbrunn ("beautiful well"), has its roots in a water well from which water was consumed by the royal court in Vienna. During the next century many members of the royal family of Austria spent their summer vacations and hunting excursions in the Katterburg. In the days of the Turkish sieges the Katterburg was nearly destroyed and it appeared to be impossible to restore the castle.

Emperor Leopold I gave architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach the order to design a new palace. His first draft was a very utopian one, dealing with different antique and contemporary ideals. His second draft showed a smaller and more realistic building. Construction began 1696 and after three years the first festivities were held in the newly built middle part of the palace.

Schönbrunn from the front side, painted by Canaletto in 1758. Not many parts of the first palace survived the next century because every emperor added or altered a bit on the inner and outer parts of the building. By order of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, the architect Nicolò Pacassi reshaped Schönbrunn Palace in a way of the style of the Rococo era. At the end of the so-called Theresianian epoch Schönbrunn Palace was a vigorous centre of Austria's empire and the imperial family.

In the 19th century one name is closely connected with Schönbrunn's, Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria. He spent the majority of his life here and died on November 21, 1916 in his sleeping room. Through the course of his reign, Schönbrunn Palace was seen as a Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) and remodelled in accordance with its history.

The palace complex includes sets of faux Roman ruins and an orangerie, staple luxuries of European palaces of its type.

Gloriette

A gloriette (from the 12th century French for "little glory") is a building in a garden erected on a site that is elevated with respect to the surroundings. The structural execution and shape can vary greatly, often in the form of a pavilion or tempietto, more or less open on the sides.

The largest and probably most well-known gloriette is in the Schönbrunn Palace Garden in Vienna. Built in 1775 as the last building constructed in the garden according to the plans of Austrian imperial architect Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von Hohenberg as a "temple of renown" 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 Hagenauer. The Gloriette was destroyed in the Second World War, but had already been restored by 1947, and was restored again in 1995.

The Gloriette is dedicated as a Monument to Just War, that which leads to peace. With the succession to the throne of Maria Theresa came first the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) and later the Seven Years' War (1756-1763).