Schonbrunn Palace travel, tours and Vacation packages

A short guide about Schonbrunn Palace

Want to tour a true classic? Visit the Empress Sisi’s former summer residence –The Schonbrunn Palace. This beautiful palace and its gardens illustrate the tastes, interests, and aspirations of the successive Habsburg monarchs. It has become one of Vienna’s major tourist attractions, and is advertised in various movies – such as the Sissi Trilogy in 1950s, A Breath of Scandal with Sophia Loren, and briefly in The Living Daylights, staring James Bond.

The Austrian Republic became the owner of Schonbrunn Palace following the downfall of the monarchy in 1918 and preserved it as a museum. For ten years after WWII, during the Allied Occupation of Austria, the Palace was requisitioned to provide offices for the British Delegation. Later it was used for important political events – such as the meeting between John F. Kennedy and the former ‘First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’ – Nikita Khrushchev in 1961.

The expressive Schonbrunn Palace with its gardens is considered to be one of the most beautiful baroque palaces in Europe. The Habsburg’s large imperial family resided here for the better part of the year in its numerous rooms. The UNESCO catalogued the Schonbrunn Palace on the World Cultural Heritage List in 1996, together with its gardens, as a remarkable Baroque ensemble and example of synthesis of the arts. When visiting – entrance fees are required for the palace and all major buildings, while access to the gardens is generally free.

Tourabout has a number of tours that visit the magnificent Schonbrunn Palace, the former imperial residence. So have a little look at what’s on offer in Vienna – as this city's Palaces and churches, museums and monuments all bear evidence to the splendour of Austria’s imperial past.