CITYSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY AND ART CONTEST | Schönbrunn Palace

Schönbrunn Palace is one of Vienna's top attractions, a place that attracts around three million people a year. It is famous for the largest royal conservatory in the world, its perfectly preserved baroque architecture, the zoo and the gardens, which have been accessible to all for more than 300 years.

At the end of the 17th century, Emperor Leopold I commissioned a famous architect trained in Rome to build a baroque hunting residence for his son. Later, Empress Maria Theresa, the only woman to head the Austrian Empire, turned it into a summer residence. At that time, every summer the imperial family together with the royal court moved to Schönbrunn - that's more than 1000 people!

During the time of Maria Theresa, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart himself played for the first time before the empress - then he was 6 years old and performed duets with his sister in the Hall of Mirrors. Among the famous inhabitants of the palace is Napoleon, who stayed here after twice successfully occupying the palace during his military campaigns. Finally, Emperor Franz Joseph lived in Schönbrunn - as a child he spent his summers here, and subsequently moved permanently, where he lived until his death in 1916.

After the First World War, the imperial family left the palace and he began to look for his new function. It was briefly an orphanage and a school for pedagogues, but proved difficult to maintain and shelter. So in the 1920s it became a museum. Today, Schönbrunn is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Schönbrunn Gardens were opened to visitors as early as 1779 and from the beginning became a favorite place for Viennese to stroll. In the French Garden, there is a tangled hedge maze that you can try to find your way through.

The conservatory of Schönbrunn is the largest such structure in a royal palace, with that of Versailles second. When it was built in the late 18th century, it was fashionable in royal and noble residences to have a reading and meeting room with large windows where oranges (hence the name “orangerie”) and other exotic plants were grown. As it was the warmest place in the palace in winter, it quickly became home to celebrations and performances. Today, exotic flowers and butterflies are grown and concerts are held in the Greenhouse.

The Palace Theater was commissioned by Maria Theresa and is the only Rococo theater left in Vienna. Maria Theresa's children played here, as did she herself, and later Mozart and Haydn gave concerts. Today it is an active stage for chamber performances of the Vienna Opera.

It is located on a hill above the palace and is the best place for panoramic photos and views. There is a cafe and an observation deck here. If you want to see the palace in a different light (literally), reserve a seat in the front row for a concert in it. Several times a year, Schönbrunn hosts themed Dinner and Concert events, during which you can hear a live performance of works by Mozart and Strauss after enjoying a full menu at a restaurant close to the palace. The concerts are held in the Orangery, and the dessert on the menu comes directly from one of the cafes in Schönbrunn, where it is prepared according to an old recipe from the royal court.

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