Thursday, November 14, 2024
Rivers are the life blood of a nation, with cities birthed along their banks, then growing to a sprawl on either side. Salzburg, "the city of salt" straddled the Salzach River, which not a route for our cruise, required a many hour bus ride to visit. Vienna, on the other hand, has the Danube River running through the heart of it. We did board the bus right after breakfast this chilly November morning, but it was only for a short jaunt through the city to the entrance of the Schoenbrunn Palace. A side note here. There seems to be a dozen different ways to spell Schoenbrunn. I'm sticking with this one, though there should be two dots over the "o".
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| The Schoenbrunn Palace, with a tastefully matching Christmas market being set up in the foreground |
Before we began our tour, we were offered a view through a wide window of what is known as the Glorietta. Beyond a vast, sweeping lawn is basically a lavish viewpoint for the palace.
As with every tour I've ever been on, we moved through more quickly than I could absorb the information. Every photo required me lagging behind our group, and thus missing a bit of information regarding the next point of interest. And it was all interesting, to be sure. A study of the Habsburg family in advance would have been helpful.
Opulence is the first word that comes to mind when viewing the palace interior. It would seem nothing was spared in time, money and materials. The hues were rich and varied, fabrics were fine, and surfaces heavily gilded. Everywhere was exquisite detail.
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| Frescoed ceiling in the Grand Gallery |
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| Chandelier lighting the Grand Gallery |
In the Carousel Room, there are two large paintings that depict important events from the reign of Maria Theresa. The first, which gives this room its unusual name, is an event called the Ladies' Carousel. A tournament of sorts, led by Maria Theresa herself, it is to demonstrate the carriage-driving skills of the ladies. The second, I haven't found information on, but it looks like an important banquet.
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| Vieux Laque Room |
Where every surface of wall and ceiling was lavished with fabrics, paint and gilt, the truly exquisite was underfoot, where exotic woods created intricate patterns like the strokes of a brush from a master's hand.
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| Oval Chinese Cabinet Room |
Delicate blue and creamy white are hallmarks of the Porcelain Room, the relatively small writing chamber of Maria Theresa. Decor is as it would have been in 1763/64, leans towards the Chinoiserie style favored by the monarch. Chinoiserie: reflecting Chinese qualities or motifs.
Another striking room is known as the Millions Room, so dubbed due to its lavish use of sumptuous materials. Walls are paneled in exotic palisander wood (also known as Madagascar rosewood) inset by more than sixty collages.
These watercolor paintings depict the lives of the Mughal rulers in India during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
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| Bright enameled flowers add a touch of color to the chandelier |
The following room is simply called The Rich Room. The bed is covered in a deep red velvet (though it looks black in the photo), lavishly embroidered in gold and silver threads. This exquisite ensemble, which includes curtains and wall hangings, was created and installed in time for Maria Theresa's marriage to Franz Stephen of Lorraine in 1736. Their portraits stand on either side of the bed.
The walls and the furniture in the Gobelin Room are covered by rich, detailed tapestries. The flooring, another intricately inlaid wood design.
The Napoleon Room, is so named for the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who resided here during his occupancy of Vienna in 1805 and 1809. It was also the bedroom of his son, the Duke of Reichstadt, from his marriage to Marie Louise, daughter of Emperor Franz II. In his portrait below, due to the gray wig, the duke looks like an old man, but he was barely of age. I was really thrown by this and assumed the painting was of someone else, but with lots of later research found that it is indeed the young duke.
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| The Duke of Reichstadt |
The young man was raised at the palace, and often called Prince Franzi. His fondness for gardening and study of botany, is represented by this painting in the park at Laxenburg.
Alas, at only the age of twenty-one, he contracted tuberculosis and died. Here his bed is on display, as well as a bust of him on his deathbed.
There are forty rooms shown on the palace map. I'm guessing that we toured most of them, though some were too crowded to linger in or take pictures. To really get a sense of the palace, and the lives lived there through the ages, one would need days. But even a basic tour would require hours that we did not have. But the day was young and the rest of Vienna awaited us. So after a browse through the ever-present gift shop (which was heavy on the Princess Sisi merchandise), we made our way out into the sunshine.
