Gloriette in the garden of the Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria

A gloriette is a building in a garden erected on a site that is higher in elevation than its surroundings.  The most famous of gloriettes is the Gloriette is in the garden of the Schönbrunn Palace located in Vienna, Austria.

Built in 1775 as the last building constructed in the garden, this Gloriette serves 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. Nowadays, the dining hall has a café in it, and on the roof, an observation platform overlooks Vienna. The Gloriette was destroyed in the Second World War, but had already been restored by 1947, and was restored again in 1995.

The Gloriette is dedicated as a Monument to Just War, that which leads to peace. The front face bears the following inscription:

IOSEPHO II. AVGVSTO ET MARIA THERESIA AVGVSTA IMPERANTIB. ERECT. CIƆIƆCCLXXV. ("Erected under the reign of Emperor Joseph II and Empress Maria Theresa, 1775.") The way of writing of the year uses a Latinization of the Greek letter Φ (phi) for 1000.

 

Short notes on the main palace:

Schönbrunn Palace (Schloss Schönbrunn) is a former imperial 1,441-room Rococo summer residence in Vienna, Austria.  At the end of the 17th century Emperor Leopold I commissioned the gifted Baroque architect Bernhard Fischer von Erlach to built a palatial hunting lodge for the heir to the throne. On the site of the old imperial château de plaisance a splendid edifice was to arise. Half a century later under Maria Theresa, Schönbrunn Palace was to become the magnificent focus of court life. From that time onwards it played host to the leading statesmen of Europe.

This postcard came from Carmen (19 March 2014) Direct Swap Postcrossing.