In artistic and historico-cultural terms, the Imperial Palace of Schönbrunn, with its adjacent buildings and vast gardens, is among the most important Baroque structures of its type in Europe. The origins of Schönbrunn go back as far as the Middle Ages when the estate came into Imperial ownership via Maximilian in 1569. Then, in the 17th century, a hunting lodge was built, and the existing zoological garden (Tiergarten) was expanded. Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach planned the new constructio