Evening star., 1916-12-04
.SCH0ENBRUN PALACE
IMPORTANT IN HISTORY
Most Dramatic Episodes in Annals
of Austria Have Occurred
Within Its Walls.

Less than three miles southwest of
the Ring -Strasse, which surrounds the
inner city of Vienna, is the impressive
pile of masonry known as Schoenbrunn,
where some of the most dramatic cpl
sodes in the history of Austria have
been staged and where only a few
days ago the sorrow stricken Emperor
Francis Josephs death brought to a
close a phenomenal reign of sixty
eight years. A National Geographic
Society bulletin of the war geography
series gives the following description
of the royal summer residence and
some of the episodes which have had
a regal setting there:
with it's more than 1,400 rooms.
Schoenbrunn is a splendid example of
imperial residence modelled on the
standard of the great palace at Yer
sailles. One of the striking pecul1ari-
ties of this home of Austrias royal
family, however, is that, instead of
crowning an eminence. it is built on
low ground, while the magnificent park
of nearly 500 acres occupies the high
ground. rising gradually from the pal
ace doors until it terminates on hill
adorned with a beautiful colonnade
called the Gloriette.
Three important events of the Ma
poleonic era were staged In the I'M
perial apartments of Schoenbrun. The
first was the treaty of 1905, signed
here by Napoleon and Haugwitz. the
latter acting for the King Of Prussia.
BY this document Napoleon inflicted a
humiliatjng diplomatic defeat on the
Prussian statesman. who agreed to sur
render Cleves, Ansbach and Neuchatel
to France in exchange for Hanover.
whereas he had come to see the en-
peror for the express purpose Of de-
livering an ultimatum demanding re-
turn of Hanover: In the same year
december 20 Napoleon issued the
proclamation of Schoenbrunn. in which
the Bourbon dynasty in Naples was
declared at an end
-Four years after Haugwitz's hunil-
iation a second treaty of Schoenbrunn
was signed, the principals TINS Time
being Napoleon and Francis I, the Aus
trian emperor, who less than year
later was to become the father-in-iaw
Of the 'upstart Corsican.
ION this occasion the emperor OF the
French again drove a hard bargain, but
this time his antagonist had no alter
native, for the Austrian army had just
sustained the crushing defeat at Wag-
ram The vanquished nation was
forced to give up SalZburg, a portion
y
tory in Carinthia. Carniola, Croatia and
along the Adriatic seaboard. In addi-
tion Francis was compelled to relip-
uuish that share of the booty which
had fallen to Austria in the third dis
memberment of Poland 1735).
Due de Reichstadt Died There.
"One of the most pathetic scenes ever
witnessed within the walls of this pal
ace erected by Maria Theresa was the
final hour in the life of the unhappy
Due de Reichstadt. son of Napoleon
and the Austrian Archduchess Marie
Louise The "Eaglet," as he was called.
was Just twenty one when he died of
tuberculosis in room once occupied
by his illustrious father on one Of the
his military headquarters. A perhaps
too highly colored and historically
warped but superbly appealing picture
of this deathbed has been given to the
world by the distinguished poet-play-
wright of france. Edmond Rostand. in
his widely known drama of L'Aiglon'.
"Schoenbrunn stands on the site of
hunting lodge built in 1870 and en-
larged in the following century, when
it received the present name after a
beautiful fountain which adorned the
grounds. During the Turkish invest
ment in 1883 the lodge was DESTROYED
but a new building was begun thirteen
wears later. The palace assumed its
present imposing outlines during the
reign of Maria Theresa and her son,
Emperor Joseph IL
brunn is its amazing number of kitch-
ens-139"