Vienna: Hietzing and Schonbrunn Palace

The Gloriette at Schonbrunn

This was a very interesting walk covering a range of historical periods from the 18^th century onwards. Our first goal was to continue the Otto Wagner theme by seeing his Royal station Pavilion at Hietzing. We left the U-Bahn station and stumbled on a Greek restaurant for a very nice lunch. Heading towards the Pavilion we then stumbled on this art nouveau gem at Hadikgasse 57. It looked to be newly renovated.

The Pavilion is suitably extravagant and features a sort of porte-clochere

However, it is only when you look along the tracks from the bridge by Hietzing U-Bahn station that you are seeing is a miniature private station.

As always with Wagner the details are delightful. Note the imperial helmets on the roof.

Now we doubled back and headed along Maxingstrasse, passing the pretty Gothick style church of Maria Geburt on the left.

The next, rather lengthy section took us through Hietzing. This is revealed to be a quiet, up-market outer suburb where leafy streets, notably Trouttmansdorfgasse and Gloriettsgasse, have substantial houses. Many are of the Biedermeyer style. My sister-in-law Claudia explained that the essence of Biedermeyer is a relatively plain and un-showy exterior, while elaboration and extravagance restricted to the inside. So pretty much the antithesis of art nouveau. Here is a typical example.

I quite liked this rather more exuberant house further along Trouttmansdorfgasse.

Our route took us past the Villa Primavesi which I had heard described as pretty. It was esigned by Josef Hoffman in 1913-15 for the financier Robert Primavesi in a surprising neo-classical style.

Not too long after this we emerged again on to Maxingstrasse and quickly left it to enter Maxing park. This in turn flowed into the grounds of the Schonbrunn Palace. We navigated our way towards the wonderful Gloriette, which we first approached from one end.

Here is a rear view of the left hand side ...

 ... and a view of the large orangery-like space in the central building.

Finally, we went up onto the roof for this great view of the Schonbrunn Palace.

From: DK Eyewitness Guide to Vienna. 

Distance: about 3 miles.

Conditions: bright and quite warm about 22 degrees.

Rating: Four and a half stars.