Although Schönbrunn Palace is now thoroughly embedded within urban Vienna, it actually served as an imperial country retreat for much of its life.
- A former Habsburg hunting estate
- Current palace has origins in the late 1600s
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- See also:
- Schönbrunn visitor & tickets overview
- All about the Habsburgs for visitors
The Katterburg
(1619 picture of Schönbrunn. Photo courtesy of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek – Austrian National Library)
In the mid-13th century, the land in and around Schönbrunn in the present day Viennese district of Hietzing all belonged to the Klosterneuburg Abbey.
That abbey remains very much active today and makes for a pleasant and easy outing from Vienna; it lies close to the Danube river…slightly west of the city in the upmarket town of Klosterneuburg.
Back then, the Schönbrunn area was not called as such and consisted of vineyards and a small village untroubled by urban development. The Katterburg — a small castle estate with its own mill — stood on the part now occupied by the palace grounds.
Emperor Maximilian II (1527-1576) bought the holding from the abbey in 1569, and the land stayed in the hands of the Habsburgs until the end of the monarchy in the aftermath of WWI.
(Portrait of Maximilian II printed in the early 1650s. Photo courtesy of the Rijksmuseum)
The emperor turned the Katterburg into his own hunting estate, but included fish ponds and collections of some exotic birds. Maximilian thus inadvertently began a tradition that would see today’s Schönbrunn park play host to the world’s oldest working public zoo.
Maximilian’s successors did little with the estate until it attracted the special interest of the second wife of Emperor Ferdinand II, Eleonore of Gonzaga (1598-1655).
After her husband’s death in 1637, the now stepmother to the new emperor (Ferdinand III) retired to the Katterburg to live. In 1642, she had a new hunting lodge built for her.
This is when the Katterburg formally became known as Schönbrunn.
A name change
(Emperor Matthias, who accidentally gave Schönbrunn its name. Photo courtesy of the Rijksmuseum)
The story goes that the name reflects the exclamation made earlier that century by Emperor Matthias on discovering a spring in the grounds of the estate; “Ei, welch’ schöner Brunn’!” translates literally as , “Oh, what a pretty spring!”
Unfortunately, the new lodge picked a bad century to go up. Vienna had narrowly survived a first Turkish invasion in 1529 and the Turks returned in 1683 to lay siege to the city once again.
Those behind the city walls held out until rescued by an army led by the Polish king, Jan III Sobieski. Those outside the walls weren’t so lucky; Schönbrunn was destroyed.
Schönbrunn’s rebirth began in 1696 when construction work started on a brand new lodge / palace.
(Find tickets and experience options for the palace and zoo)
The baroque architect responsible was Johann Fischer von Erlach. He’d had a first set of somewhat over-ambitious plans “rejected” a few years earlier, but won approval and — more importantly — the commission from Emperor Leopold for a second set of suggestions.
Fischer von Erlach was one of the great architects of his time, responsible for other great Viennese buildings like the Karlskirche, Palais Schwarzenberg, the court library and the arena of the Spanish Riding School (though his son often completed the actual construction work).
Alas, Fischer von Erlach’s plans never reached complete fruition.
The hapless Charles II, King of Spain, inconveniently died childless in 1700. This left the French, his Habsburg relatives and various other European powers to squabble over the throne.
The War of the Spanish Succession messed up Emperor Leopold’s financial planning and called a halt to work at Schönbrunn.
The influence of Maria Theresa
(1782 picture of Schönbrunn. Note the colour. Photo courtesy of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek – Austrian National Library)
The palace achieved its full glory some 40-50 years later, thanks to the drive of Empress Maria Theresa (1717-1780).
Until the Empress’s reign (which began in 1740), Schönbrunn had always been limited to an occasional summer retreat or dowager residence.
Court activities reported in the Wiener Zeitung paper in 1703, for example, talk of the imperial family dropping into Schönbrunn for lunch and an afternoon boar hunt before returning to their city residence.
Maria Theresa, however, turned the location into her preferred full-time summer residence.
(Schönbrunn around 1822, painted by Franz Jaschke; Wien Museum Inv.-Nr. 213463; excerpt reproduced under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license; photo by the Wien Museum)
So from 1742 until the late 1770s, the palace and its interiors were expanded and transformed into their current majestic form.
Despite the delay in completing the work, the architects relied heavily on Fischer von Erlach’s original designs (the architect himself had died in 1723).
Nikolaus Pacassi, the court architect who managed the building works for the Empress, modified and expanded those plans. As a result, Fischer von Erlach and Pacassi get joint credit for the palace.
By the late 1700s, Schönbrunn stood pretty much as it does today. The only major exterior change was to the façade, which gained its distinctive yellow coloring sometime later.
Modern history
(Schönbrunn palace in the 21st century)
Most of the later work went on inside the palace, with extensive refurbishments and changes accompanying, for example, the accession of Emperor Franz Joseph in 1848 and his subsequent marriage to Elisabeth in 1854.
After the demise of the monarchy following WWI, Schönbrunn passed into state ownership. It’s now managed by a limited company, though one wholly owned by the Republic of Austria.
In 1996, UNESCO added the palace and gardens to their World Heritage List, stating that the site is of…
…outstanding universal value being an especially well-preserved example of the baroque princely residential ensemble, which constitutes an outstanding example of a Gesamtkunstwerk.
The location still retains an authentic historical feel (as you can tell from its use as an outdoor setting in period dramas like Vienna Blood Season 2 or the Corsage movie) but is now a jewel in the crown of Viennese tourist attractions.
This overview lets you find your way around the complex and its numerous locations and activities for visitors. Those includes palace tours and classical music concerts in the huge orangery.