Skip-the-line available What to See Inside Schönbrunn: The Grand Tour
The Great Gallery, the Hall of Mirrors where Mozart played, the Millions Room and the apartments of Franz Joseph and Sisi — the palace interior, room by room.
Inside Schönbrunn, the Grand Tour is the fullest route: 40 rooms along the piano nobile, taking in both the private imperial apartments and the ceremonial state rooms of the Habsburg court. It leads from the rooms of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth — the famous 'Sisi' — into the great halls where the empire staged its power, ending in Maria Theresa's opulent private chambers. The shorter Imperial Tour covers 22 of these rooms; the Grand Tour adds 18 more, including the dazzling Maria Theresa interiors. This guide walks you through the highlights room by room, how the two routes differ, and how long to allow inside.
Grand Tour or Imperial Tour: what is the difference?
Schönbrunn offers two main interior routes. The Imperial Tour covers 22 rooms and focuses on the 19th-century apartments of Emperor Franz Joseph, born here in 1830, and Empress Elisabeth, plus a selection of state rooms — a solid visit if time is short. The Grand Tour covers all 40 rooms of the piano nobile, adding the 18th-century state and private rooms from the age of Maria Theresa, including the Millions Room, the Vieux-Laque Room and her personal apartments. For a first visit that wants to see the palace at its fullest, the Grand Tour is the concierge recommendation: it doubles the 18th-century content and includes the most extravagant interiors of the whole palace. Both routes are self-guided with an audio guide and share the same 15-minute timed-entry system, so the difference is purely how many rooms you walk through on the way from Franz Joseph's era back to Maria Theresa's.
The practical decision comes down to time and interest. Choose the Imperial Tour if you have under an hour and are drawn mainly to the Franz Joseph and Sisi story of the 19th century; choose the Grand Tour if you want the complete sweep from Franz Joseph back to Maria Theresa and can give the interior 60 to 90 minutes. Both begin from the same visitor entrance on Schönbrunner Schloßstraße and follow a fixed one-way route through the rooms, so you cannot switch mid-tour once you have started. An audio guide, included on both routes and available in many languages, narrates each room as you go, and an accompanying history presentation sets the Habsburg context. Because the route is one-way and admission is by 15-minute timed slot, the palace never feels crowded even when fully booked, and you set your own pace once inside.
The imperial apartments of Franz Joseph and Sisi
The tour opens in the private apartments of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth, preserved much as the imperial couple left them. Franz Joseph, who reigned for 68 years and both was born at Schönbrunn in 1830 and died here in 1916 at the age of 86, kept a famously austere personal routine, and his study and bedroom reflect it — plain furnishings and the emperor's desk, in pointed contrast to the gilded state rooms beyond. Nearby are the rooms associated with Elisabeth, the Bavarian-born empress known across Europe as 'Sisi', including spaces tied to her celebrated beauty regime and her restless, much-mythologised life. These apartments are the emotional heart of the Imperial Tour and the reason many visitors come: they put a human, 19th-century face on a palace whose grandeur otherwise belongs to the 1700s and the reign of Maria Theresa.
Between the private quarters, the route passes shared and ceremonial spaces that frame the couple's domestic life within the machinery of empire. Interpretive panels and the audio guide fill in the story of a marriage strained by court protocol, personal tragedy and Sisi's frequent absences from Vienna, the empress having married Franz Joseph in 1854 at just 16. This section of the palace draws heavily on the enduring 'Sisi' legend that also anchors Vienna's Sisi Museum at the Hofburg, the Habsburgs' winter palace in the city centre, and seeing her Schönbrunn rooms alongside that museum gives the fullest picture of her life. For visitors whose interest is primarily the Franz Joseph–Sisi era rather than the Baroque state rooms, these apartments alone can justify the visit, and they are included on both the Imperial and Grand tours, so no upgrade is needed to see them.
The great state rooms: Great Gallery, Hall of Mirrors and more
The ceremonial highlights come thick and fast in the middle of the tour. The Great Gallery is the palace's dazzling centrepiece — a long Baroque hall of white-and-gold stucco, crystal chandeliers and ceiling frescoes, historically used for court receptions, balls and state banquets, and still used for events today. Adjoining it, the Hall of Mirrors is where, in 1762, a six-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performed for Empress Maria Theresa and her court, one of the most retold episodes in the palace's history and central to Schönbrunn's identity as a cultural landmark. These rooms were designed to overwhelm visiting dignitaries with Habsburg wealth and taste, and they remain the visual peak of any Schönbrunn tour. Together they form the ceremonial spine that links the private apartments of Franz Joseph and Sisi at one end to Maria Theresa's rooms at the other.
From the Great Gallery the route continues through a sequence of richly decorated salons, each with its own story. The Ceremonial Hall displays large paintings of Habsburg court occasions, and the smaller cabinets and antechambers step down in scale from the grand halls to the more intimate rooms beyond. The consistent thread is the mid-18th-century Rococo taste of Maria Theresa's era — gilding, mirrors, silk hangings and painted ceilings — applied at a scale few European palaces can match, and preserved carefully enough to earn UNESCO World Heritage status in 1996. Photography is generally not permitted in these interiors to protect the historic surfaces, so this is a section to experience rather than shoot; save your camera for the facade and gardens. The audio guide identifies the key paintings, furnishings and events room by room as you pass through the enfilade.
Maria Theresa's rooms and the palace's curiosities
The Grand Tour's extra 18 rooms are its reward: the private and exotic interiors from the age of Maria Theresa that the shorter 22-room Imperial Tour omits. The Millions Room is the most extravagant — panelled in rare rosewood and set with a fortune in Indo-Persian miniature paintings, it takes its name from its reputed cost and is one of the most opulent Rococo interiors in Europe. The Vieux-Laque Room is panelled in precious East Asian black lacquer, reworked by Maria Theresa as a memorial room after the death of her husband Francis Stephen, the founder in 1752 of the palace's Tiergarten zoo. These rooms show a different, more personal and more worldly side of the palace than the ceremonial halls, and they are the single strongest reason to choose the Grand Tour of forty rooms over the shorter Imperial Tour.
The Grand Tour also takes in a run of smaller cabinets and salons decorated with chinoiserie, blue-and-white porcelain, and painted panels reflecting the 18th-century European fascination with East Asia. Together they reveal Maria Theresa, who ruled the Habsburg lands from 1740 to 1780, not just as a ruler but as a collector and a patron of a distinctive courtly taste. This deeper 18th-century content is what makes the Grand Tour feel complete: you leave having traced the palace from the 19th-century world of Franz Joseph and Sisi all the way back to the Baroque golden age that created Schönbrunn's interiors. For history-minded visitors, these final rooms are the highlight, and they explain why the palace and its gardens were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, recognised as a symbol of Habsburg power.
How long does the Schönbrunn interior take, and how do I make the most of it?
Allow about 60 to 90 minutes for the Grand Tour's 40 rooms at an unhurried pace, or roughly 45 minutes to an hour for the 22-room Imperial Tour. The route is one-way and self-guided with an included audio guide, so you set your own speed once inside, pausing at the rooms that interest you and moving on quickly through the rest. Because admission is by fixed 15-minute timed slot, the interior stays comfortable even when the palace is fully booked, and you never queue between rooms once past the entrance on Schönbrunner Schloßstraße. Plan your slot so the interior tour fits before or after your time in the free gardens rather than trying to rush both into a narrow window — a half-day covers palace and gardens together comfortably, and a full day lets you add the Tiergarten zoo or the Palm House on the western grounds.
To make the most of the visit, use the audio guide actively rather than as background — it carries most of the room-by-room detail, since interpretive signage inside is limited. Arrive a little early, ideally for a first slot soon after the 08:30 opening, for a quieter experience, and remember that photography is generally not allowed in the state rooms, so absorb the interiors in person and photograph the ochre-yellow facade and grounds instead. If you are travelling with children, the separate Children's Museum in the palace complex offers a hands-on, dress-up experience of imperial life that complements the main tour. And leave time afterward for the free gardens and the climb to the Gloriette of 1775, which most visitors agree is the perfect complement to the palace interior and gives the classic view back over the palace and the city of Vienna.
Frequently asked
What are the must-see rooms inside Schönbrunn?
The Great Gallery, the Hall of Mirrors where the six-year-old Mozart played for Maria Theresa in 1762, the rosewood-panelled Millions Room, the black-lacquered Vieux-Laque Room, and the preserved private apartments of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Sisi.
How many rooms does the Grand Tour include?
The Grand Tour covers all 40 rooms of the palace's piano nobile, including the 18th-century Maria Theresa state and private rooms. The shorter Imperial Tour covers 22 of those rooms.
Should I do the Grand Tour or the Imperial Tour?
For a first visit, the Grand Tour: its 40 rooms add 18 more than the 22-room Imperial Tour, including the dazzling Millions Room and Vieux-Laque Room from the Maria Theresa era. Choose the Imperial Tour only if time is very short.
Did Mozart really play at Schönbrunn?
Yes. In 1762 a six-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performed for Empress Maria Theresa and her court in the Hall of Mirrors, one of the most famous episodes in the palace's history.
Can I take photos inside Schönbrunn Palace?
Photography is generally not permitted inside the historic state rooms to protect the interiors. Save your camera for the ochre Baroque facade, the Great Parterre and the view from the Gloriette.
How long does it take to tour inside Schönbrunn?
Allow about 60–90 minutes for the 40-room Grand Tour and roughly 45–60 minutes for the 22-room Imperial Tour. Both are self-guided with an included audio guide, so you set your own pace.
Is there an audio guide inside Schönbrunn?
Yes — an audio guide is included on both the Grand Tour and Imperial Tour and is available in many languages. It carries most of the room-by-room detail, as interior signage is limited.
Can you see the apartments of Sisi and Franz Joseph?
Yes. The private apartments of Emperor Franz Joseph — who was born and died at Schönbrunn — and Empress Elisabeth ('Sisi') are preserved and included on both the Imperial and Grand tours.