Your expert, English speaking private guide will meet you at the entrance of the Schonbrunn Palace and escort you past the line and straight through security, before taking you on an exquisitely beautiful tour of this former royal summer residence and its vast gardens.
The Schonbrunn Palace has a history spanning over 300 years and is famous for its elegantly imposing Neo-Classical exterior, its opulent Baroque interiors filled with cream and gold walls, plush royal scarlet silken furniture, thousands of priceless paintings and works of art, and a dazzling array of crystal chandeliers. With your “Highlights” ticket, only available to special partners of the Palace, you will get to visit the best of the palace, not accessible with a standard ticket.
It was used as the summer residence of many Austrian monarchs and their consorts, from the time of the extremely religious and cultural afficionado Eleanor Gonzaga in the 17th century to Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elizabeth, fondly called “Sisi” (who was shockingly assassinated) in the 1800s. The palace boasts extensive gardens filled with classical fountains and follies designed by Jean Trehet, a disciple of Andre Le Notre, the landscape architect of Versailles.
It was a royal palace until the fall of the Austrian Imperial family in 1918 and has since become a UNESCO World Heritage site and the most visited palace-museum in Austria. Presidents Kennedy and Kruschev famously met here, and the palace and grounds have been often used for film and TV.
On your two-hour private tour, you will learn all about the lives of the aristocrats, architects, and artists that contributed to this dazzling confection of Baroque splendor over several hundred years, as well as the fall of the royal family at the end of World War 1. Your guide will show you rooms not open to the general public and give you an in-depth introduction and orientation of the gardens where your tour will end for you to enjoy strolling the grounds of the Great Parterre at your own leisure, just like the aristocrats of times gone by!