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Schönbrunn Palace is a former imperial summer residence in Vienna, Austria. One of the most important cultural monuments in the country, since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna. The castle is currently Vienna's most popular tourist destination, attended by over 2.5 million visitors per year.

The palace and gardens illustrate the tastes, interests, and aspirations of successive Habsburg monarchs.

In German the Schönbrunn Palace is called the Schloss Schönbrunn, literally "Castle Schönbrunn" The name Schönbrunn meaning "beautiful spring", has its roots in an artesian well from which water was consumed by the court.

History

In the year 1569, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II purchased a large floodplain of the Wien river beneath a hill, situated between Meidling and Hietzing, where a former owner had erected a mansion called Katterburgin 1548.

The emperor ordered the area to be fenced and stocked with game such as pheasants, ducks, deer and boar, in order to serve as the court's hunting ground. Exotic birds like turkeys and peafowl were kept too. Fishponds were also built.

During the followingcentury, the area was used as a hunting and recreation ground. Eleonore Gonzaga, who loved hunting, spent much time there and was bequeathed the area as her widow's residence after the death of her husband, Ferdinand II. From 1638 to 1643, she added a palace to the Katterburg mansion. The origins of the Schönbrunn orangery seem to go back to Eleonore Gonzaga as well.

In 1642 came the first mention of the name "Schönbrunn" on an invoice. Fischer von Erlach had initially planned to erect the main palace on the top of the hill where the Gloriette now stands.

Following the downfall of the monarchy in 1918 the newly founded Austrian Republic became the owner of Schönbrunn Palace and preserved the rooms and chambers,as a museum.

After World War II and during the Allied Occupation of Austria (1945–1955) Schönbrunn Palace was requisitioned to provide offices for both the British Delegation to the Allied Commission for Austria and for the Headquarters for the small British Military Garrison present in Vienna.

In 2003 the palace was selected as the main motif of a commemorative coin: the Austrian 10 euro known as the The Palace of Schönbrunn Silver Coin. The obverse shows the central part of the frontage of the palace behind one of the great fountains in the open space.

The palace is Vienna's most popular tourist destination. The whole Schönbrunn complex with Tiergarten Schönbrunn, Palmenhaus, Wustehaus and the Wagenburg, aattract more than five million visitors per year.

At the official website tickets can be purchased in advance for tours. In addition to tours and tour packages, many classical concerts featuring the music of W. A. Mozart and his contemporaries can be enjoyed. Concert attendees can spent time in the spectacular halls, Orangerie, or Schlosstheater.

Gardens

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

The complex however includes other attractions: Besides the Tiergarten, the world's oldest existing zoo (founded in 1752), an orangerie erected around 1755 and a Palm house. Western parts were turned into English garden style in 1828–1852. At the outmost western edge, a botanical garden replacing an earlier arboretum was re-arranged in 1828, when the Old Palm House was built.

Lining the Great Parterre are 32 sculptures, which represent deities and virtues.

The garden axis points towards a 60 meters high hill, which since 1775 has been crowned by the Gloriette structure. 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 Gloriette here is one of the most spectacular examples in the world.Maria Theresa intended the Gloriette to glorify Habsburg power and the Catholic concept of the Just War, and to this end recycled "otherwise useless stone" left from the demolition of Schloss Neugebäude. This material was also to be used for the Roman ruin. The Gloriette today houses a café withr a view of the city.

The Roman Ruin

Originally known as the Ruin of Carthage, the Roman Ruin is a set of follies designed by the architect Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von Hohenberg and erected as an entirely new architectural feature in 1778.

The fashion for picturesque ruins became widespread with the rise of the Romantic movement soon after the middle of the 18th century. such ruins symbolised both the decline of once great powers and the preservation of the remains of a heroic past. Erected at the same time not far from the Roman Ruin, the Obelisk Fountain was intended to complete the iconography of the park at Schönbrunn as a symbol of stability and permanence.

The Roman Ruin consists of a rectangular pool enclosed by a massive arch with lateral walls, evoking the impression of an ancient edifice slowly crumbling into the ground. In the pool in front of the ruin is a seemingly haphazard arrangement of stone fragments supporting a figural group which symbolizes the rivers Danube and Enns.