Thursday 7 October 2010

Breakfast With The Emperor
Exploring Schönbrunn


Griaß enk!
Welcome!
A welcome in Tyrolean dialect
at the entrance of the beautiful Gastgarten
of the Restaurant Tirolerhof

Red flowers
in a window box

Carved wood porch column
at the outdoor stair landing.

I love how
these blossoms
caress the wood just so.

And this is the view,
from the porch of the restaurant,
built in Tyrolean farmhouse style,
looking down to the 1722 farmhouse
located in the gardens of
Schönbrunn Palace!

Right here, at this table,
did I savour a perfect Mother's Day breakfast,
accompanied by the cock-a-doodle-doo of
the resident rooster at the farmhouse below
and the finest chorus of birds imaginable!
Particularly enjoyable was the friendly service
all around, and for this alone would I encourage you
to have a meal there.

The Tirolerhof's bucolic setting,
amidst a forest-like area of the palace gardens,
the outdoor dining terrace under tall leafy trees,
and the great food, prepared from
local and even organic ingredients where possible,
make it a really enjoyable Gasthaus experience.

The Tirolerhof entrance to
the famous Schönbrunner Zoo is only steps
away from this Country Inn in the City,
offering you a golden opportunity to work off
the Schnitzel and Apfelstrudel right there!

Or you decide to walk straight ahead,
in south-easterly direction,
where you will see this side-façade rise in front of you:

Schönbrunn's Gloriette!
Standing high on the hill behind Schönbrunn Palace,
the Gloriette with its large high-ceilinged center hall
and arcaded wings, this graceful folly in all
its splendid non-usefulness,
is in my opinion one of the most romantic places
in all of Vienna.

"Built in 1775
as the last building constructed in the garden
according to the plans of Austrian imperial architect
Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von Hohenberg
as a 'temple of renown' to serve as both a focal point
and a lookout point for the garden,
it was used as a dining hall and festival hall
as well as a breakfast room for emperor Franz Joseph I
." *)

Where once the Emperor
used to entertain his dinnerguests
or have breakfast in solitude -
lost in thought, following a mallard duck
swimming in the reflection pool, perchance,
or gazing down onto the summer palace and its gardens
and the city beyond -
nowadays we commoners can do the same,
while drinking a cup of coffee or tea,
and eating a slice of apfelstrudel
if we so chose, all in imperial surroundings.



Click on the image
for more views of the city
from the Gloriette!

And so the answer
to the question in my Sunday post
- Where in the City? -
has become clear:
Schönbrunn Palace's Garden
is the location of both the 1722 Tyrolean farmhouse
and the building where emperor Franz Joseph I,
the next to last ruler of a long line of Habsburg owners,
used to have his solitary breakfast
(see also Morning in the City).

A view of Schönbrunn Palace
and gardens from the Gloriette


Photographs and Text
May 2009
© by Merisi


gloriette.
Eye-catcher, or pavilion in a garden from which views may be enjoyed, e.g. Hohenburg's Gloriette at Schönbrunn, Vienna (1775).
JAMES STEVENS CURL. "gloriette." A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Oxford University Press. 2000.
(Retrieved May 12, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com)


Hohenberg, Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von
(1732–1816).
Architect of the arcaded Gloriette, the celebrated eye-catcher in the park at Schönbrunn, Vienna (1773–5), an early revival of the Cinquecento style, as well as the ‘Roman Ruin’ (1778), inspired by Piranesi. He redesigned (1772) the landscape garden at Schönbrunn, and is credited with the interior of the theatre at Schönbrunn Palace.
JAMES STEVENS CURL. "Hohenberg, Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von." A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Oxford University Press. 2000. (Retrieved May 12, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com)

*) Text in cursive, between quotation marks, quoted from Wikipedia.org!

Click for a map of Schönbrunn,!

14 comments:

  1. Dear Merisi! Again wonderful pictures made up the favorite my place :-) Happy deed and thank you, but please come to me because it's true that the Hungarian but I gave you an award :-)
    Ildi :-)

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  2. Merisi, thank you for sharing your beautiful photos. Happy Thursday!

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  3. You really should do a book of your images--these are so beautiful.

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  4. Wow! Thanks for sharing these beautiful shots. I plan to go to Vienna.......some day! The little inn is making me long to go back to Salzburg. I fell in love with that city. I predict there will be apfelstrudel for desert tonight at The Ranch.

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  5. Does gloriette = folly ??
    It's a new word for me .
    I like.

    I also love your description -
    "splendid non-usefulness."
    We all need more of that in
    our lives !

    judith

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  6. Sometimes, I have no words and I stay speechless behind your stunning pictures of your fabulous town!

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  7. A bucolic setting, indeed! Just glorious.

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  8. Just read your entire post to a friend on the phone and then I said wait a minute, you must go to Mirisi's blog and view her images that go with what I read ;). I have done this with her before. Hoping that she shall and these as always delightful. Have a great weekend~

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  9. A wonderful post, so full of beauty and information!

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  10. The photos are beautiful and the table looks very inviting :0)

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  11. Hohenberg certainly knew what he was doing!

    I loved the location, style and views from the arcaded Gloriette, even though I normally think roman ruins are a bit twee. He was multi talented, wasn't he? landscape gardener, architect, designer of theatre interiors *sigh*. Most of us are lucky if we can do one thing well.

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  12. Just GORgeous. I am really wanting to pack a bag right now and head to Europe. These places are so exquisite and your photos beautiful as always.

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