Schonbrunn

Schonbrunn palace is very much your standard European royal palace in that it could not be mistaken for anything but the very grand living quarters of a royal family.  No one but the wealthy and powerful aristocracy could ever have afforded to build such a massive and beautiful building and no one else certainly could ever have afforded the up keep.  Since I am a poor college student, I did not actually pay to go inside the palace so all of my observations and analysis is based on my touring of the grounds and the pictures I have seen of the interior.  However, even without seeing the interior, I can very easily tell that Schonbrunn is a place that has obviously been designed to impress.  With its huge royal living space, extensive servants quarters, grand gardens, and its very own zoo, Schonbrunn is any royal family's dream.

It was especially interesting to go and visit Schonbrunn after seeing the Habsburg's previous residence at Klosterneuburg.  While Klosterneuburg is unquestioningly beautiful, it cannot compete with the sheer size and grandioseness of its replacement.  This change in residence that was enacted by Maria Theresia does indeed make senses both within the Habsburgs and on the larger European scale.  For Maria Theresia this was a place that she could make her own without the shadow of her father hanging over everything like at Klosterneuburg.  This desire to build something new and something that is yours is a pretty universal feeling.  Also, on a less personal level, Klosterneuburg could not compete with the huge palaces of other European monarchies at the time.  A French representative coming from Versailles to Klosterneuburg would probably not have been very impressed, but a French representative coming to Schonbrunn would have been forced to view the Habsburgs as a powerful and wealthy rival.  This palace then, is only one of the many instances in which the Habsburgs used art and architecture to convey their power and advance their absolutist monarchy.