UNESCO: Schönbrunn Palace

Schönbrunn Palace (along with its Garden), became a World Heritage Site in 1996, because it’s “outstanding as one of the most impressive and well preserved Baroque ensembles of its kind in Europe“. The building was first referred to as Schönbrunn (beautiful Spring) in the first half of the 17th century, and has kept its meaning (and appearance) since then. I’ve visited the Palace in 2008, and I have to say it’s greatness overawed me. Although the Loire valley palaces and castles are considered more beautiful by some, I was totally astonished by this one. I don’t remember taking the tour in the castle (which, by  the way, has 1441 rooms, most of them decorated in Rococo style), I think we went directly to the gardens.

I remember that I immediately fell in love with the Park. Being a guided tour, we didn’t have very much time to ourselves so we hurried as much as we could to cover most of the place. But that’s wrong. I don’t know about you, but I definitely like to take some time absorbing the atmosphere and the surroundings and not rush through everything. Anyways, we started by taking some photos with the Gloriette and most of the park in the background:

Gloriettea

The Garden (or the Park) is very impressive and beautiful. I’m not only talking about the elegantly arranged flowers and plants, but the wonderful sculptures too. They are everywhere and make the atmosphere enchanting.

sculptures

Next thing we did was to walk up to the fountain with my friend, Timi. We wanted to check out the Zoo, but realized we didn’t have enough time to do that and the Gloriette too, so we chose climbing up to the monument that represented Power and Strength.

with Timi at the fountain

There was a part of the Park that we also missed out on (it’s a pity-I have to and will go back!) which had a Labyrinth of shrubberies and  even prettier flower arrangements. Here’s a photo of it from a distance:

hedge labyrinth

As we distanced ourselves from the Palace, it looked more and more majestic and awe-striking.

Schonbrunn Palace from a distance

After practically running up to the Gloriette, we finally arrived there and it was totally worth it. The view from up there was absolutely amazing, you could see all of Vienna from up there.

at the Gloriette

the view from the Gloriette

I remember that we took a few quick shots when we realized what a ridiculously short amount of time we had left to get back to our group, so we ran. It is said that the distance between the Palace and the Gloriette is of more than 1 kilometers, so we had a bit of catching up to do.   We saw people going on carriage rides. Guess what? For an amount of money you can rent carriages and do the whole tour just sitting in it and enjoying the view. Beats running all over the place, huh?

carriage ride

What I’ve learned: don’t go on guided tours like this ever again! It’s not for me.

Extra info: If you’d like to visit Schönbrunn Palace, you can get a little help from this site, which offers all of the information you need all in one place, from how to get there to opening hours and entrance fees. 

Have a lovely week! 🙂

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