Schonbrunn Palace

08/10/09

German word of the day is Beantwarten, which means to answer

I spent my Sunday checking out the Schonbrunn palace with Brian, and although I have been to the Habsburgs summer palace once before it was the first time I actually took the time to go on the Palace tour and went to the zoo on the grounds. The tour was especially interesting because it gave a great look at the ways that Maria Theresea and later Franz Josef I lived and worked while at Schonbrunn. The last time that I visited the palace I had no knowledge of the reigns of either of these incredibly influential rulers, and therefore the palace had a subsequently less dramatic affect on the way that I viewed the royal court of the Habsburgs. I had never made the connection between Schonbrunn and Versailles, and even if I had known at the time it would have meant far less and made far less sense to me why such a connection was so important during those times. The fluctuation of importance placed on Royal opulence is a great indicator of the political climate of the times, and it makes a lot of sense why a woman such as Maria Theresea needed to establish her own dramatic palace as a symbol of her rule.

The palace tour itself was not the best that I have been on; it did show of the Rococo style that was so popular with Maria Theresea and her successors, but it didn’t quite capture the feeling of a house of the daily life of Royalty. One exception would have been the study of Franz Josef, in which he worked all day with the same doggedness that endeared him to so many Austrians. The study was very plain and straightforward, which made it easy to envision the tedium that must have taken place there every day, which for me was a much more powerful image than the opulence that surrounded the rest of the palace. The unbelievable amount of personnel that were required to run the palace during the summer (about 1300) gave the palace something of an empty feeling in my opinion, as the vast majority of people that would have been there toiled away on menial tasks, rather than enjoying their chambers or lolling in the rooms that we were ushered through. To me a tour of the servants quarters, the kitchens, or even the stables with descriptions of the sort of tasks that had to be performed over and over would have made the palace a more accessible place to understand. This thought struck me particularly when looking at a chandelier that must have contained about 50 candles (now lit with electricity of course), and how much work would have to go into lighting, replacing, cleaning, and fixing the chandelier simply for the purpose of the royal family eating dinner there.

The zoo was very similar to those that we are used to in the States, the only real difference being a couple of animals that I hadn’t seen before.

If the historical significance of Schonbrunn was lost on me during my first visit, it was entirely clear this time around. The comparison Versailles was much more important to the original founders than I ever could have predicted, as it was really the entire impetus for making the palace in the first place. The original plan called for Schonbrunn to dwarf its French counterpart, but of course it was considered too expensive to be financed at the time of its conception, so a much more modest version resulted. After Maria Theresea renovated and expanded the palace, it was second only to Versailles in scope and opulence, which made me wonder whether this fact may have irked the original planners almost as much as not having a palace in the first place. If the main point in the first place was to dwarf Versailles, wouldn’t coming up just short be just as bad or worse as not even trying in the first place?

The other historical significance that really struck me was Napoleon’s residence of over two months at Schonbrunn during the first taking of Vienna. I have long been interested in the rise and conquests of the French general, and I had never really connected his conquest of Austria with the symbolic taking of its most expansive royal palace. Napoleon was certainly not shy about leaving his mark wherever he was, and the obelisks with French eagles on the tops became much more obvious with this thought in mind. His reach extended across most of Europe of course, but whenever two histories collide in such a real and tangible way for me it is very gratifying. Connecting history to concurrent events has always been a little difficult for me, and when the dots do manage to connect through my muddled mind it can provide some “ah-ha” moments.

Being that we decided to go on a Sunday, the palace was absolutely flooded with tourists. Of course Brian and I were as much tourists as anybody there, but it did make drifting back into the world of the Habsburgs a little more difficult. A screaming baby throughout a palace tour can make looking in on their private world a little less of a tangible experience, just like constantly dodging out of fellow travelers’ photos can distract from truly contemplating those that walked these steps hundreds of years before. This didn’t dim the experience of Schonbrunn too much, but it is a similar feeling that I have gotten at many historical sites that I have visited over the years. There isn’t really anything for it, except to just try to get the most possible out of the situation that is presented, which is what I will continue to try to do.