The awe-inspiring, 260-year-old Schonbrunn Palace is one of Vienna’s most famous and deserving attractions, and the largest palace in the city. It boasts being one of the finest pieces of baroque architecture in all of Europe.
The palace was built in 1743 under the watchful eye of Empress Maria Theresa, and the aristocracy practically screams out from its manicured greenery and symmetrically ornamental design.
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Schonbrunn Palace
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Schonbrunn Palace and Gardens
You can enter in through the baroque park, which is free for everyone. Certain parts, like the awesomely colorful Crown Prince Garden, may require a proper tour of the grounds—but even if you head in on your own there are many places of interest and activities, such as wandering through itshedge maze and labyrinth, or trotting to the top of the Gloriette on the hill for an expansive and unbeatable view of Vienna in all its splendor.
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The Gloriette
While you can’t take any photos inside, the basic guided tour will show you all the grandeur that Viennese royalty enjoy. You’ll see the palace’s west wing, for example, where Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth roomed in the summer.
You can also spy the titanic state rooms in the central wing, one of which is the Great Gallery where, during the height of the Cold War, U.S. President John F. Kennedy met diplomatically with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
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The Great Gallery
On the longer Grand Tour, visitors can check out the older 18th-century rooms that belonged to Maria Theresa, the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions—a family whose rule stretches back a thousand years. The Habsburg dynasty, since being formally dissolved in 1780, now features title-only heads of state and some actual politicians.
The palace also houses a Children’s Museum, showing tourists the difference between a royal upbringing and a middle class one. It shows off all the food, toys and privileges that children growing up in this amazing household would have enjoyed.
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Schonbrunn Palace and Gardens
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Gardens of Schonbrunn Palace
The Vienna Philharmonic plays in Schönbrunn Palace’s garden park every summer for the Midsummer Night’s Concert, which draws roughly 140,000 people into the park—that they all fit should indicate the size of the grounds themselves. Millions more tune in to watch the concert performance on TV or online.
Today, Schönbrunn Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most-visited tourist attraction in Vienna, reeling in more than 2.7 million visitors annually.
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