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History of Schönbrunn Palace |
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Schönbrunn Palace together with its ancillary buildings and extensive park
belongs by virtue of its long and colorful history to the most important
cultural monuments in Austria. Scheduled as a listed monument, the whole
ensemble, including the palace, the park with its numerous architectural
features, fountains and statues and not least the zoo - the oldest of its kind
in the world - was placed on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List late in
1996. In the possession of the Habsburg rulers since Maximilian II, the palace passed at the end of the monarchy to the ownership of the Republic of Austria and was administered by the Schlosshauptmannschaft Schönbrunn. Since 1992 Schönbrunn (with the exception of the palace gardens) has been run by the Schloss Schönbrunn Kultur- und BetriebsgesmbH. as a modern, private company which has successfully ensured both efficient management and an extensive program of renovation and conservation. The history of Schönbrunn and the previous buildings that stood on this site goes back to the Middle Ages. The whole estate was referred to as the Katterburg from the beginning of the 14th century and belonged to the manor of the monastery at Klosterneuburg. Over the following centuries the names of numerous tenants are documented, including a few prominent figures such as, in 1548, Hermann Bayer, who was mayor of Vienna and who extended the buildings, transforming the whole into a manorial estate. In 1569 the estate came into Habsburg possession through Maximilian II, and according to the title deeds included a house, a watermill and stabling as well as a pleasure garden and an orchard. This laid the foundations for an imposing residence and formal gardens as well as a deer park. Maximilian was primarily interested in extending the game park, which was principally intended for the breeding of native game and fowl. However, the peasantry also contained exotic fowl such as peafowl and turkeys. Following the sudden death of Maximilian II in 1576 the Katterburg passed to Rudolph II, who did little except made available the necessary funds for its upkeep. Emperor Matthias used the estate for hunting, and according to a legend is supposed to have come across the Schöne Brunnen (lit. 'fair spring'), which eventually gave the estate its name, while on a hunting excursion in 1612. His successor, Emperor Ferdinand II, and his wife, Eleonora von Gonzaga, both passionately keen on hunting, chose Schönbrunn as the venue for their hunting parties. After Ferdinand's death in 1637 the estate became the dower residence of his art-loving widow, who needed the appropriate architectural setting for her busy social life. She therefore had a 'château de plaisance' built around 1642, which was accompanied by the renaming of the Katterburg as Schönbrunn, a change of name first documented in the same year. In 1683 the château de plaisance and its deer park fell victim to the depredations of Turkish troops during the siege of Vienna. From 1686 the estate was in the possession of Emperor Leopold I, who decided that he would make the estate over to his son and heir, Joseph, and have a splendid new residence built for him. Soon afterwards the architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, an architect who had received his training in Rome and had been recommended by patrons from the nobility, arrived at court. In 1688 he presented the emperor with a preliminary set of designs for a new palace, the so-called Schönbrunn I Project, with which he sought to display his architectural abilities and gain the emperor's interest. Fischer was promptly engaged as tutor for architecture to the heir to the throne in 1689 and subsequently enjoyed a brilliantly successful career as architect to the court and nobility. In 1693 Leopold I commissioned concrete plans for the construction of a grand hunting lodge, on which work started in 1696. The new edifice was partly built on the existing foundations of the château de plaisance that had been destroyed by the Turks. By the spring of 1700 the central section had been completed and was ready to be moved into. The construction of the lateral wings was delayed from 1701 owing the War of the Spanish Succession and the attendant financial constraints, and came to a complete halt after Joseph's sudden death. Fischer von Erlach was responsible not only for designing the palace; the construction work was also carried out under his immediate supervision. It was probably in connection with this huge and prestigious project that he was invested with the mark of nobility "von Erlach" by Emperor Leopold. The unfinished palace then became the dower residence of Wilhelmine Amalie. In 1728 Emperor Charles VI acquired Schönbrunn, but used the estate only for shooting pheasants. Eventually he made a gift of it to his daughter, Maria Theresa, who is documented as having always had an especial fondness for the palace and its gardens. Maria Theresa's reign marked the opening of a brilliant epoch in Schönbrunn's history, with the palace becoming the center of court and political life. Under her personal influence and the supervision of the architect Nikolaus Pacassi Joseph I's grand hunting lodge was rebuilt and extended into a palatial residence. Work on the unfinished building began in the winter of 1742/43 and eventually culminated in a huge rebuilding project which gave the palace the appearance it still largely has today. The first construction phase from 1743 to 1749 was closely associated with Nikolaus Pacassi, who owing above all to his practical skills advanced to become the leading architect on the project and was duly appointed court architect. The audience chamber and residential apartments of the future emperor and empress in the east wing were extended and were ready to be moved into by 1746. One year previously the newly-refurbished court chapel had been consecrated. However, in terms of its spatial structure and proportions it remained largely unaltered from Fischer von Erlach's design. The rebuilding of the east wing included the laying out of the two inner courtyards and the construction of the so-called Chapel Staircase which afforded access to the piano nobile. The following phase in 1746 included the removal of the central exterior flight of stairs that Fischer had built on the Parade Court front, in order to create a spacious carriageway out of the ground floor of the central projection, together with the Great and Small Galleries above it on the piano nobile. During the same phase the so-called Blue Staircase was constructed in the west wing out of the former dining room designed by Fischer von Erlach in order to provide a suitably imposing entrance to the piano nobile, whereby the original ceiling frescoes by Sebastiano Ricci from 1702/03 were preserved. The steady growth of the imperial family made new alterations in the east wing necessary by 1747; a new mezzanine floor was inserted between the piano nobile and the upper story to serve as the apartments for the imperial children and their retinue. The two galleries at the center of the palace provided space for large-scale festivities, with the Small Gallery being used for more intimate family celebrations. At this stage the two rooms were as yet unadorned with the rich stucco decoration and the ceiling frescoes that were later to grace them. On private occasions, the Great Gallery could also be accessed directly via the sweeping flights of the newly-constructed Parade Court Staircase. On official occasions visitors had to take the long way round from the Blue Staircase to the audience chambers of the emperor and empress in the east wing, in order to comply with court ceremonial. Other alterations at this time included the colonnades connecting the side wings - known as the 'Cavalier Wings' - along the Parade Court which housed the upper ranks of the court servants. Adjacent to these and extending both eastwards (including the Orangery) and westwards a complex of working quarters was constructed. These were urgently needed, as Schönbrunn had now become an imperial residence, and including the imperial family and the court, more than 1500 people had to be provided for and accommodated. At Maria Theresa's express wish a theatre was also built in the north Parade Court wing and was ceremonially opened in 1747. Among the singers and actors who trod its boards were the numerous children of the empress. Maria Theresa herself also distinguished herself here as a talented singer. Soon after 1750 Maria Theresa again felt compelled to embark on a new phase of rebuilding, the planning and execution of which lay entirely in the hands of Pacassi. The imperial family was growing at the rate of nearly one child a year, and the corresponding need for more room led to the insertion of a mezzanine floor in the west wing. This meant that the symmetry of the building's exterior had been restored and that the completion of the façade could now be taken in hand. The building work of this second phase was not limited to creating more room in the palace: it also included the decoration of the ceremonial and state rooms. The two galleries were given vaulted, frescoed ceilings and exuberant stucco-work decoration, and number among the most important Rococo interiors ever created for an imperial palace. The frescoes were executed by Gregorio Guglielmi between 1755 and 1761, while the stucco decoration was created in 1761/62 by Albert Bolla. Most of the rooms on the garden side of the palace were also given typical Rococo decoration with exuberant, playful forms known as rocailles, mirrors and paintings set into the walls or with the then highly fashionable "chinoiserie". Following the sudden death of Emperor Franz I Stephan in 1765, which was a devastating blow to Maria Theresa, a new phase of refurbishment and alterations ensued. The widowed empress had several rooms in the east wing of the palace appointed as memorial rooms and spared no expense in fitting them out with precious Chinese lacquer panels and costly wooden paneling which have survived to this day. On the ground floor Maria Theresa had the so-called Bergl Rooms painted with exotic landscape murals between 1769 and 1777, and used these rooms as her apartments during the hot summer months. After Maria Theresa died Schönbrunn Palace remained unoccupied and was only used as a summer residence again during the reign of Emperor Franz II/I. During this intervening period Schönbrunn was occupied twice in 1805 and 1809 by Napoleon, during which the French emperor used the memorial rooms to Franz Stephan in the east wing as his quarters. On the occasion of the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15 it had become clear that Schönbrunn urgently needed refurbishing. During the course of these improvements Franz I/II had the façade altered between 1817 and 1819 to designs by the court Johann Aman which considerably changed its appearance. Aman removed Pacassi's elaborate Rococo decoration from the façade, reducing it to much soberer forms with few decorative elements, and had the palace painted in "Schönbrunn Yellow", giving it the characteristic appearance it still retains today. In 1830 Franz Joseph was born in the east wing of the palace, in the apartments occupied by his parents Franz Carl and Sophie. Trained by his mother from infancy for his future role as emperor, Franz Joseph spent the summers of his childhood and youth at Schönbrunn. When he succeeded to the throne in 1848 the palace was once again to experience a brilliant epoch as he eventually chose Schönbrunn as his favorite residence and was to spend the major part of his life there. At the beginning of his reign Franz Joseph moved into apartments in the west wing facing the Parade Court which he was to continue to occupy until his death on 21st November 1916. While the state and ceremonial rooms remained largely unaltered, the emperor's private apartments were redecorated and refurnished. Preserved to this day, the rather sober and bourgeois style of the furnishings reveals Franz Joseph's character and predilections. In preparation for his impending marriage to Elisabeth, Duchess in Bavaria, in 1854, work had begun the previous winter on adapting apartments for the future empress in the west wing facing the Hietzinger Kammergarten. Elisabeth's apartments consisted of several rooms centered on the empress's salon in which she gave audiences. The adjacent rooms to the north such as the marital bedroom, the dressing room and the Stairs Cabinet served Elisabeth as private rooms and were furnished with heavy palisander furniture. The so-called Stairs Cabinet was her study. In 1862 Elisabeth had a spiral staircase built into this room which gave direct access to the rooms below on the ground floor. The rooms lying below her apartments were refurbished one year later as her private rooms, becoming a 'garden apartment' to which she could retreat, rather like the apartments she later had at Gödöllö. These rooms consisted of a large salon and most probably the obligatory exercise room. The walls were hung with silk and the furniture upholstered in her favorite shade of lilac. The apartments of the children of Franz Joseph and Elisabeth were also on the ground floor. Adjoining the empress's apartments were the rooms for her eldest daughter Gisela, and Rudolf was given his own suite of rooms known as the Crown Prince Apartments, which were located on the Meidling side of the palace. Despite the fact that all these apartments on the ground floor had been refurbished for Franz Joseph's family, the ceiling stucco decoration from the time of Maria Theresa together with the white and gold-painted wooden paneling and the landscape paintings executed on canvas were largely preserved. The superbly-executed stucco-work decoration on the walls and ceilings of these rooms attests to the high quality of the craftsmanship of Maria Theresa's epoch. In preparation for his impending marriage to Elisabeth, Princess in Bavaria, in 1854, work was undertaken from 1869 on the 18th-century Rococo interiors, which were either repaired or replaced with neo-Rococo features as an expression of the imperial style. This restoration work affected the two galleries and the rooms in the east wing, which were to be used for high-ranking visitors. The walls of these latter rooms were hung either with tapestries from the imperial collection or refurbished with new red silk pineapple damask hangings like those that are still to be seen in the palace today. The mid-18th-century marble-finish stucco work in the Small Gallery was replaced with stucco work with a highly polished white lead finish with elaborate gold decoration in the form of agraffes, trophies and arrangements of weapons. |