Schönbrunn Palace Park

This guide to Schönbrunn Palace Park follows Empress Maria Theresa's decades of building here after her husband's death in 1765, in a mourning she wore for the rest of her life. It traces the Gloriette's construction on the hilltop above, designed by her court architect after courtiers complained the slope deserved something grander, and the years sculptor Wilhelm Beyer spent carving the Neptune Fountain below. In 1779, she opened these grounds to the public, so that ordinary Viennese could walk where empresses walked.