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Palace and gardens of Schönbrunn
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How it came to be
In 1569 the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II bought land on the Wien river and made it a hunting ground for the court. Between 1638 and 1643 Eleonora Gonzaga, widow of Ferdinand II, added a palace there, and the name Schönbrunn, beautiful spring, first appears on an invoice of 1642. The hunting lodge was destroyed in the last Turkish attack of 1683.
As it was rebuilt, the project grew into an imperial summer residence, and UNESCO names Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and Nicolaus Pacassi as its architects. The present palace, with 1,441 rooms, was remodelled in the 1740s and 1750s under Maria Theresa. In 1752 a menagerie conceived by her husband Francis Stephen opened in the park, and it is the oldest zoo still in operation.
In 1775 the Gloriette, designed by Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von Hohenberg, was built on the hill at the end of the garden axis. Emperor Franz Joseph was born at Schönbrunn and died there in 1916. After the fall of the monarchy in 1918 the palace passed to the republic, and in 1996 it was inscribed with its gardens as a World Heritage site.
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