Today was our second day of royalty. We took the clean and efficient Viennese subway to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Schonnbrunn Palace, summer home of the Habsburg dynasty. Formerly the site of the abbey at Klosterneuburg, the land was purchased in 1569 by Maximilian II, the first of the Habsburgs to own it. It was mostly used as a hunting lodge, until Empress Eleonora built a chateau de plaisance in 1642, only to have it destroyed by the Turks in 1683. A palace was built over the ruins by Leopold I with completion in 1700. But it wasn't until Empress Maria Theresa was given the property in around 1736, that the palace began to take its present shape.
It is such a long building, that to see it in its entirety, it's best to climb the steep hill behind the palace to the gloriette built in 1775. What is a gloriette? According to Wikipedia, a gloriette is a building in a garden erected on a site that is elevated with respect to the surroundings. This gloriette was built in 1775 and used for balls. You can see it behind us, as we stand in the colorful gardens, near the zoo and the maze. (What's a palace without a zoo and a maze?)
The palace ground contain several gardens, including a "privy" (private) garden and an orangerey garden (for all your royal palm and citrus trees). Here Benjamin stands at the privy garden, with the side of the palace behind him.
The privy garden is ringed with immense trellises, overgrown with vines. You could run laps here without getting wet.
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