Castles · Tour

Laid Out by a Pupil of Le Nôtre; Meet at the Model of the Palace

Two hours at Schönbrunn with a private English-speaking guide, on the Highlights ticket rather than the standard one. That ticket is the point of difference: it is sold only to selected partners of the palace and opens rooms a standard admission does not. The building is over three centuries old, Neo-Classical outside and Baroque within, with cream and gold walls, scarlet silk furniture, paintings and crystal chandeliers throughout. The guide works through the people who made it, the aristocrats who lived in it, the architects who altered it and the artists who filled it. The gardens close the tour, with a proper introduction rather than a wave of the hand. They were designed by a pupil of André Le Nôtre, the man who laid out Versailles, and the resemblance is not accidental. The Great Parterre is then walked at your own pace, which is what the court did with it. The meeting point is easy once you know it: just inside the main gate, immediately on the left, in front of a small scale model of the palace.