Neptunbrunnen, Baroque Fountain in Schönbrunn

         back to "vienna pictures"         

On the picture above, you can see a detail of the Neptunbrunnen, a rather big Baroque fountain in the parks of the Imperial Palace of Schönbrunn. As a palace of the Baroque/Rococo era, the parks played a major role in representation: Balls and receptions would take place and diplomats or statesmen of other countries would need to be impressed by follies, fests or sheer size.

An important element was a large fountain; Schönbrunn was modelled after Versailles near Paris, and the Neptunbrunnen resembles its French counter-part in style and position with respect to the main building of the palace. It is only one of many "follies" in the parks: The biggest one is the Gloriette, which you saw on a previous pictures. Beyond that, there is a maze, Roman ruins, grottos, an obelisk, smaller fountains, the zoo, pavilions and lots and lots of flower beds in geometric arrays.

You can easily spend several hours walking through the parks of Schönbrunn. For several of the follies, most importantly the Roman Ruins, stone from the Renaissance palace of Schloss Neugebäude was used. This explains why very little of this once outstanding palace is left today. The more there is to see in Schönbrunn.