Schloß Schönbrunn - The State Rooms and Imperial Apartments on the piano nobile

We are now in the Guards’ Room. The personal guard of Emperor Franz Joseph was stationed in this room to keep watch over the entrance to the emperor’s apartments. To your right is a ceramic stove, which like all the others in the palace was stoked (originally with wood) from a passage running behind the walls of the rooms, so that the imperial family was not disturbed and to reduce the amount of dirt. In the 19th century a steam heating system was installed which was in use until 1992.

This room served as a waiting room for people attending an audience with Emperor Franz Joseph. Imperial audiences were held twice a week. The billiard table, which belonged to Franz Joseph’s grandfather, Emperor Franz I of Austria, was used by army officers to pass the time. On the walls you can see three large paintings. The central painting depicts the first awarding of the Order of Maria Theresa in 1758. Founded by Maria Theresa, this was the monarchy’s first order of merit and one of the highest honours bestowed by the imperial dynasty. The paintings on the left and right commemorate the centennial anniversary of the order‘s foundation. Franz Joseph held a magnificent banquet in the Great Gallery of the palace as well as a reception in the park to mark the event.

This room gets its name from the precious walnut panelling, which together with its gilded ornamentation and the console tables belongs to the original Rococo décor from the time of Maria Theresa. The chandelier dates from the 19th century. It was in this room that Franz Joseph received individuals who had requested an audience. People would come for an audience in order to thank the monarch for the award of an honour, to lodge a request, or to present themselves on receiving an official position. Franz Joseph would receive up to a hundred people in a morning and was famous for his phenomenal memory, never forgetting a name or a face. These audiences lasted for a few minutes and were brought to an end when the emperor inclined his head slightly.

Franz Joseph ascended the Austrian imperial throne when he was only eighteen. He dealt with a phenomenal amount of work each day: starting before five o’clock in the morning, he spent the day at his desk, which you can see here on the right, where he worked diligently through the files put in front of him. He even had his breakfast and lunch served to him at his desk. This was how the first public servant of his state, as he liked to describe himself, spent most of his time. The emperor was uninterested in having his rooms done up in sumptuous style. He was content to surround himself with private paintings, photographs of his family and keepsakes given to him by his children and grandchildren. One of the two large portraits shows Franz Joseph at the age of 33, while the other depicts his wife, Empress Elisabeth, who was called Sisi in the family, a name that has come to encapsulate the enduring myth of this tragic empress.

Running to a strict schedule, the emperor’s daily routine began at four o’clock in the morning. After rising and performing his ablutions in cold water the emperor, who was a strict Catholic, said his morning prayers kneeling on the praying stool which you can see to the left of the bed. The iron bedstead is further evidence of the emperor’s rather Spartan lifestyle. Franz Joseph died in this bed at the age of 86 in 1916, after a reign of 68 years, amidst the turmoil of the First World War. The painting on the easel shows the emperor on his deathbed. During the course of his long life, the emperor had suffered numerous blows of fate: his eldest daughter, Sophie, died at the age of two, and his brother Maximilian, emperor of Mexico, was executed by revolutionaries. This was followed by the tragic suicide of his only son, Rudolf, and the assassination of Empress Elisabeth by an Italian anarchist. At the exit to this room, on the left-hand side after the door, is the emperor’s lavatory. It was installed “on the English system” for Franz Joseph in 1899. The next three rooms belonged to the suite occupied by Empress Elisabeth. The Stairs Cabinet was used by Empress Elisabeth as her study, where she kept up her extensive correspondence and wrote her diaries and her poetry. From here a spiral staircase, which was removed after the fall of the monarchy, led down to the empress’s private apartments on the ground floor. The Dressing Room is devoted to the beauty regime of the empress. Elisabeth was considered to be one of the most beautiful women of her time, and was well aware of this. Her beauty regime and sporting activities to preserve her slender figure dominated the empress’s daily routine, with the care of her magnificent ankle-length hair occupying several hours a day. Please go through this room and enter Room 9, the Bedroom of Franz Joseph and Elisabeth.

In 1854 Franz Joseph married his cousin Elisabeth, who was just sixteen years old at the time. This room was furnished and decorated as their bedroom on the occasion of their wedding. Franz Joseph worshipped his wife all his life. Whether this affection was returned to the same degree remains a matter of speculation. Elisabeth rejected the rigid etiquette of court life from the very beginning and over the course of the years developed into a self- confident woman. She led an independent life, travelling extensively, and in later life was rarely to be seen in Vienna. In September 1898, at the age of 61, Elisabeth was stabbed to death with a file by the Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni in Geneva.

The atmosphere of this room, which served Elisabeth as a reception room, is determined by the white and gold panelling, pale silk wall hangings and the sumptuous Neo-Rococo furniture. The clock in front of the mirror has a second mirror-image face so that it can also be read in the reflection. Note the pastel portraits dating from the 18th century – they are of Maria Theresa’s children and were executed by famous artists, among others by the Genevan painter Liotard, whose work Maria Theresa was particularly fond of. The painting to the left of the stove shows Maria Theresa‘s youngest daughter, Marie Antoinette, in hunting dress. In 1770, at the age of fifteen, she was married to the heir to the French throne, later King Louis XVI, in a bid to end the age-old enmity between France and the Habsburg dynasty. Marie Antoinette was executed on the guillotine in 1793 during the course of the French Revolution.

This room was used as the family dining room. Imperial family dinners followed strict court ceremonial, and the table was always festively set with gilded centrepieces decorated with flowers, fruit and sweetmeats. At official dinners French cuisine was served, but for family dinners Franz Joseph preferred traditional Viennese dishes such as schnitzel, beef goulash, boiled fillet of beef or the famous “Kaiserschmarren” (shredded sweet pancakes with raisins). In order to be able to serve the food when it was warm and freshly-made, it was transported from the wing containing the court kitchens to the imperial apartments in heated boxes and kept warm in an adjoining room in warming ovens fuelled by coal and, later on, gas. The emperor sat at the centre of the table, with the empress opposite him on the rare occasions she was present. As Elisabeth often fasted in order to preserve her slender figure she seldom attended family meals. Family dinners usually began at six o’clock in the evening and consisted of three to six courses. The dining service on the table has been loaned by the Imperial Silver Collection in the Vienna Hofburg, where a wealth of treasures in porcelain and silver is exhibited. The exhibits include the gold cutlery and condiment set of Maria Theresa as well as the personal service of Empress Elisabeth, among many other fascinating objects.

The Children’s Room is decorated with portraits of Maria Theresa’s daughters. Most of her eleven daughters were married off at a young age for political reasons. On the left just beside the door is the portrait of Marie Christine, Maria Theresa’s favourite daughter. The only one of her daughters allowed to marry for love, her husband was Albert of Saxony-Teschen, the founder of the Albertina. Here you can look into the bathroom which was installed for Zita, the last Habsburg empress, in 1917. Before you leave the next room you can look into the Breakfast Cabinet. The appliqué work in the medallions decorating the walls was executed by Elisabeth Christine, the mother of Maria Theresa.

The Yellow Salon is the first room in the apartments on the side of the palace facing the gardens. It contains remarkable pastel paintings by the Genevan artist Liotard which show realistic depictions of children from middle class families. They contrast starkly with the typical courtly portraits of Maria Theresa’s children, examples of which you can see in the next room. There you can also see a portrait of Maria Theresa in a blue gown by the court painter Martin van Meytens.