Schönbrunn’s Palace Ticket tour highlights

The State Apartments tour of Schönbrunn Palace includes the glorious Great Gallery. But a self-guided Palace Ticket tour lets you add even more Habsburg opulence in rooms carrying the heady scent of historical significance.

Takes you into numerous extra locations
See the apartments of great monarchs
Look, especially, for the Vieux-Laque Room
Book a Schönbrunn concert, tour & more*
See also:
- Palace tours overview & ticket tips
- Schönbrunn overview & visitor tips

Is the Palace Ticket worth it?

(Schloss Schönbrunn; the Vieux-Laque room © Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H. – Alexander Eugen Koller)

The Palace Ticket tour includes all the rooms of the State Apartments tour, but also numerous further interior locations of equal magnificence.

It begins in chambers most closely associated with Emperor Franz Joseph (1830 – 1916) and his wife Elisabeth (the famous “Sisi”). The tour then moves into those rooms with a deeper connection to Empress Maria Theresa (1717 – 1780) and includes the Great Gallery ballroom.

This extended self-guided tour only costs a little more (an extra €9 for adults at the time of writing), but adds another 30 rooms or so. So, as I mentioned on the tour overview page, I’d definitely recommend doing the full Palace Ticket option if you have the time.

My highlights

(Schloss Schönbrunn; the salon of Empress Elisabeth; press photo © Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.)

So what impressed me most?

I love exhibits that connect the past and present. One of the monumental paintings in the Billiard Room, for example, showed the Schönbrunn gardens, Neptune Fountain and Gloriette as they looked around 150 years ago: little has changed…

Look for the stunning walnut wall panelling in the Audience Chamber (watch out for walls and floors throughout the tour)

You might say the desk in Franz Joseph’s study was essentially the administrative centre of a mighty empire. And we now shuffle past it, the empire just a memory. The experience offers a salutary lesson on transience

Check out the imperial smoking pipes here, which would do admirable service as props on the set of Lord of the Rings.

The bed in Franz Joseph’s Bedroom (where he died) struck me as surprisingly nondescript, reflecting the disciplined life he led

Much has been written about Empress Elisabeth’s beauty regime, where just washing her hair was quite an event. The set of scales in her Dressing Room felt particularly poignant when you consider her obsession with her weight

(Schloss Schönbrunn; the Audience Chamber; press photo © Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H. – Alexander Eugen Koller)

Look for the clock in the Salon of Empress Elisabeth. The clock face at its rear is reversed, so you can read the time accurately in the mirror behind it

The Imperial apartments in the Hofburg palace also feature a set of rooms used by Franz Joseph and Elisabeth. And for more locations relevant to the latter’s life, see the guide to Sisi in Vienna.

The Marie Antoinette Room served as a dining room and the table was laid out for a meal on my visit. I suspect the crockery and glassware is *not* dishwasher safe

I marvelled at the remarkable napkins shaped using the unique imperial fold. Apparently, only two people at a time ever know the required folding technique.

Portraits of Empress Maria Theresa’s children hang in the Balcony Room

If I’m honest, I’d accuse the court painter of only having one face he could paint. Either that or the children were uncannily similar.

The Hall of Mirrors is a feast of mirrors set between white and gold rococo walls and ceilings

(Archduke Joseph presents the six-year-old Mozart to the Emperor and Empress at Schönbrunn in 1762. Photo courtesy of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek – Austrian National Library)

Close your eyes in this room and imagine the tones of a piano played by a surprisingly-competent six year old.

Mozart probably gave his first performance to the Empress Maria Theresa at this very location.

Today’s Vienna offers plenty of opportunity to hear Mozart’s music in historical ambiences, including the Schönbrunn palace orangery, but also in churches and baroque townhouses.

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You now reach the nine or so rooms covered by the State Apartment tour, which I talk about elsewhere. After that…

For another encounter with great moments in world history, enter the Blue Chinese Salon. Just over a hundred years ago, the last Emperor (Karl I) stood here and agreed to give up any role in government following the defeat of Austria-Hungary in WWI

This scene brought an end to a monarchy that had ruled Vienna and various dominions throughout Europe for hundreds of years.

Perhaps my favourite location: the Vieux-Laque Room (see the photo earlier in the article). Empress Maria Theresa redecorated it in honor of her late husband

The artistry is breathtaking, but the chamber also reveals a rarely-seen side of the monarchy.

(Rooms related to Empress Maria Theresa form a strong theme in the rooms on the Palace Ticket tour. Image courtesy of the Rijksmuseum)

You get the sense that here was not an empress at all, but simply a woman in love with a man whose death in 1765 affected her deeply. A reminder that wealth and power offer no protection from loss and grief.

Back to history and the Napoleon Room, with no prizes for who likely stayed here. Napoleon based himself at Schönbrunn during his occupation of Vienna in the early 19th century

Echoes of Napoleon’s stay resonate around the city.

For example, the Burggarten owes its existence to his army’s truculent and destructive withdrawal, and his carriage sits in the Wagenburg. His second wife (the Habsburg Marie Louise) lies in the Kapuzinergruft crypt. And their son’s rather ornate cot resides in the Imperial Treasury.

You can even find the coat Napoleon wore when he left for exile on Elba in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum. Vienna is full of these kinds of historical mementoes.

The walls in the Porcelain Room may look like, well, porcelain, but are actually drawings on wood

Quite apart from the beauty of the illusion, the panelling includes remarkably-decent paintings (at least to my untrained eye) by Empress Maria Theresa’s children. In fact, royal paintings, drawings, and artistry appear throughout the tour.

The extremely rare and valuable East Indian rosewood panelling and embedded Indo-Persian miniatures explain the name of the Millions Room

The Rich Room contains a bed which stands at the opposite end of the scale to the simple piece of furniture Franz Joseph died in (see the Imperial Tour). The bed of state was made for Empress Maria Theresa and intended for ceremonial purposes

You know you’ve made it in life when you have a bed for purely ceremonial purposes. The only question I have, though, is quite what that involves? The annual Changing of the Sheets? Or something formal around the efforts required to ensure an heir?

And that’s just about it for your self-guided tours of Schönbrunn Palace. It may be the highlight of a trip to Schönbrunn, but by no means the only one: try some more suggested activities.