Schönbrunn Palace

The main summer residence of the Habsburg Empire’s rulers was Schönbrunn Palace. Located outside Vienna, its present form was primarily constructed and remodeled during the four-decade reign of Empress Maria Theresa who received the estate as a wedding gift. She and Emperor Franz lived in the east wing of the imperial apartments, but in older age, the empress suffered from the summer heat and had a suite (or four) furnished on the ground floor. This was her “garden apartment,” to where she retreated.

The empress must have needed to chill. At only twenty-three years old she became ruler of the Habsburg Empire (as the only woman to hold the position in her own right), which included Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Mantua, Milan, Galicia and Lodomeria, the Austrian Netherlands (most of current-day Belgium and Luxembourg), and Parma and Piacenza (phew). In addition to all that ruling, she gave birth to sixteen children. So while the apartment goes by many names, it’s fair to call it Empress Maria Theresa’s well-earned getaway.

The enfilade—meaning rooms threaded, or aligned in a row—reflect a layout often seen in seventeenth-century baroque palaces (and New York City’s “railroad” apartments). The first room would be for the public, then came state rooms, and at the very end of the thread would be the bedroom. People advanced as far along the enfilade as their rank allowed.

The empress’s rooms all contained elaborate murals, painted by Johann Wenzel Bergl, each representing a different garden. The first displays wild, exotic scenery; the second, with painted drapes, peacocks, and baskets of fruit, suggests courtly culture; the empress’s bedchamber is  formal baroque garden; and the last, private room is painted like the inside of a shady arch.

Maria Theresa’s apartment was occupied by several family members after her death. And following the downfall of the monarchy in 1918, the palace was preserved as a museum. Today, regardless of rank, all members of the public can cool down while surveying the entirety of the empress’s verdant spool.

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