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Schönbrunn Palace

Dguendel, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Attraction · Vienna

Schönbrunn Palace

The Habsburgs' summer palace, 1,441 rooms of it, with a garden that climbs to a hilltop colonnade and the oldest zoo in the world in one corner.

Time neededHalf a day
Best timeEarly morning
Rooms1,441, of which 40 open
StatusUNESCO World Heritage
About

A summer residence built to answer Versailles

Schönbrunn began as a hunting lodge and became the Habsburg summer residence, rebuilt into its present form for Maria Theresa in the middle of the eighteenth century under Nikolaus Pacassi. It has 1,441 rooms; about forty are open, and the two standard routes through them differ mainly in how many. The gardens are the other half of the visit and are free to walk: the Great Parterre runs from the palace up to the Gloriette, a colonnade set on the ridge that was built as a viewpoint and reads as one. The Tiergarten in the western corner was founded in 1752 and is the oldest zoo still operating anywhere. The whole ensemble has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.

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What to See

What to look at

The palace is ticketed and timed; the gardens are neither.

👑 The state rooms

  • The Great Gallery, where the Congress of Vienna danced and where the ceiling frescoes are the point
  • The Millions Room, panelled in rosewood and hung with Indo-Persian miniatures
  • The rooms associated with Maria Theresa, Franz Joseph and Elisabeth, which is what most visitors come for

🌳 The gardens

  • The Great Parterre, the formal axis from the palace to the hill
  • The Gloriette on the ridge, and the view back down over the palace and the city behind it
  • The Neptune Fountain at the foot of the slope

🦓 The Tiergarten

  • Founded 1752, the world's oldest surviving zoo, with its original baroque pavilion still at the centre
  • A separate ticket and easily a half day of its own
Getting There

Getting there

It is outside the Ring, and the U-Bahn goes to the gate.

🚇 By U-Bahn

  • Line U4 to Schönbrunn, then a short walk to the main gate
  • Hietzing, also on the U4, puts you at the western end near the zoo

🚊 By tram

  • Several routes run along the Schönbrunner Schlossstrasse past the palace front

🎟️ Entering

  • Palace entry is by timed slot and sells out in season; the gardens need no ticket at all
Best Time

When to go

The palace interior and the garden want different times.

🕰️ Time of day

  • First slot of the morning for the state rooms — the route is one-way and a full house moves slowly
  • Late afternoon for the Gloriette, when the light is behind you looking back at the palace

📅 Season

  • The parterre planting peaks in early summer
  • Winter is quiet inside and the gardens are bare but the palace looks its best against snow

⏱️ How long

  • An hour or so for the rooms, and as long again for the gardens and the walk up to the Gloriette
Visitor Intelligence

Worth knowing

The two halves of the site are managed completely differently.

🎟️ Book the interior

  • Palace entry is timed and does sell out; the gardens are open and free and need no planning at all

⛰️ The Gloriette walk

  • It is a real climb up the parterre, on gravel, with no shade on the way

📷 Photography

  • Not permitted in the state rooms; the gardens and the Gloriette are unrestricted

👨‍👩‍👧 With children

  • The zoo and the maze hold up far better than the state rooms do
Nearby

Nearby

The rest of Vienna.

St Stephen's Cathedral
In the centre, on the U-Bahn
The Hofburg
The winter palace, inside the Ring
Vienna
The city guide
Good to Know

Frequently asked

No. The Great Parterre, the walk up to the Gloriette and the main garden paths are open and free, and a great many visitors come for those alone. Tickets are needed for the palace interior, for the Gloriette's own terrace, for the maze and for the zoo, each of which is managed separately. It is entirely reasonable to visit Schönbrunn without going inside anything.
Around forty of the 1,441, on one of two routes that differ mainly in length. Both are one-way and timed, both take in the Great Gallery and the rooms connected with Maria Theresa and with Franz Joseph and Elisabeth. The shorter route is enough for most visitors; the longer one adds more of the eighteenth-century interiors rather than a different kind of thing.
It is the oldest surviving zoo in the world, founded in 1752, and its original baroque pavilion still stands at the centre of the layout, so it is of genuine historical interest as well as being a working zoo. It is also a half day in itself. Trying to add it to a palace-and-gardens morning generally means doing all three badly.
The U4 underground line runs to Schönbrunn station, a few minutes' walk from the main gate, and to Hietzing at the other end near the zoo. Trams run along the road in front of the palace as well. It is outside the Ring but well inside the city, so the journey from the centre is short and does not need a tour transfer.
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