Schönbrunn Zoological Park is preceded by three pavilions that make up the Palm House, the largest of its kind in Europe.
The origins of this popular zoo, the oldest in the world, date back to the mid-eighteenth century, when Emperor Franz Joseph I, a natural science enthusiast, had a menagerie built, featuring thirteen cages arranged radially around a central octagonal pavilion, where the imperial couple occasionally had breakfast.
This initial core soon proved inadequate to contain the different animal and plant species the garden was quickly enriched with, either as a result of expeditions to the East Indies sponsored by the emperor, or of purchases or donations. New cages were thus added in the nineteenth century, and in the early twentieth century, the zoological area was expanded within the castle grounds to host a record 3,470 animals, belonging to more than 700 species.
Today the zoo is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, and is renowned, among other reasons, for being the birthplace, in 2007, of the world's first panda cub to be born in captivity, just as had occurred with a baby elephant a century earlier.
If you want to visit the zoo, you’ll be surprised by the striking habitat of the tropical greenhouse and the area dedicated to orangutans, as well as the delightful pandas, and the fish, which you can admire as you walk through an underwater tunnel. If you enjoy physical contact with the marine world, you’ll be pleased to know that you can also dip your hands into some of aquarium tanks - just not the jellyfish tanks!
An interesting fact: The first giraffe arrived at the zoo in 1828, donated by the viceroy of Egypt. The strange creature proved so popular that shows and parties were held in its honor, leading to a curious fashion trend of "giraffe-style” clothes, accessories and hairstyles. Unfortunately, although great care was taken of the famous creature, the giraffe died after just ten months, and it took a full 23 years for a new specimen to be brought to the zoo.
