Maria Theresa, archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia and the wife of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, received Schonbrunn Palace as a wedding gift. This palace was the main summer residence of the Habsburg rulers.

Together, Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I had sixteen children, ten of whom survived to adulthood. The youngest daughter of Maria Theresa and Francis I was Marie Antoinette.

I took a taxi from my hotel to the Schonbrunn Palace and embarked on an exciting tour of the beautiful rooms of the palace and the magnificent gardens.

The ***Palace Chapel*** was a beautiful structure comparable to the many churches I visited in Vienna.

I can envision an elegant ball in this room with couples dancing to the music of the Viennese waltz.

There are close to 40 rooms inside the palace that are open to the public.

My favorite part of the palace was the outside grounds. There were so many beautiful walkways and fountains. With spring in the air, some of the flowers were beginning to bloom.

I was particularly amazed at the uniformity of all the trees.

There were many benches located throughout the grounds. It was nice to sit and soak up the sun for a time before exploring more of the grounds.

Notice how the top of the trees in this picture form a frame and below an arch. I don’t know how they did that, but it was interesting to see.

The walk back to the hotel was a little over an hour long. I decided to take the walk rather than the tram so I could take in more of Vienna on my last day.

My GPS led me through a pedestrian only thoroughfare where I found this beautiful church – Mariahilfer Kirche.

***Mariahilfer Kirche*** is a parish church and was built between 1686-1689.

This artist created this treasure from sand and displayed it on the streets of Vienna.

As I entered this beautiful church named Stiftskirche, I was impressed by the structures on the walls depicting specific stories of the life of Jesus.

This is a beautiful sculpture on the walls of the ***Striftskirche*** depicting the Passion of Jesus.

This 3D sculpture depicts Jesus as He is crowned with thorns.

It is hard to describe the size of these sculptures. As I walked into this church, I gasped at the size of these art pieces. They were large, beautiful, and very detailed.

This has been a wonderful trip.

The best surprise, as I turned the corner toward my hotel was a wine festival complete with a full orchestra playing beautiful Austrian folk music.

What a beautiful ending to a great four-day adventure in Vienna! Based on all the photos of Austria shared in these last few blogs, let me know in the comments below which was your favorite.

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