Schönbrunn Palace

Schönbrunn began as a hunting lodge and was rebuilt into the palace seen today largely under Empress Maria Theresa in the mid-18th century, who used it as her primary summer residence while raising sixteen children (including the future Marie Antoinette) and ruling the Habsburg lands for four decades. With 1,441 rooms, it rivals Versailles in scale, though only a fraction — around 40 on the Grand Tour — are open to visitors.

The Imperial Tour covers 22 rooms including the ceremonial state apartments; the Grand Tour extends to 40, adding Maria Theresa's private apartments and the rooms where Napoleon later stayed during his occupations of Vienna, and where Franz Joseph — the emperor who presided over the empire's last, long decline — was born and eventually died in 1916.