Schönbrunn Palace

Maria Theresa received this palace as a wedding gift in 1740 and immediately set about turning it into the most extravagant summer house in Europe. With 1,441 rooms — forty-five of which you can visit today — Schönbrunn makes Versailles look like a starter home. The Empress ran an empire from these halls while raising sixteen children, which is either extraordinary multitasking or proof that delegation works.

The Millions Room alone justifies the entrance fee. Panelled in rosewood and decorated with Indo-Persian miniatures set under rococo gilding, it ranks among the most beautiful rooms of its era anywhere in the world. Next door, the Round Chinese Cabinet is where Maria Theresa held secret strategy sessions with her chancellor, Prince Kaunitz — conversations that shaped European politics for decades, conducted surrounded by lacquered panels and porcelain.

A six-year-old Mozart performed in the Mirror Room in 1762, and legend has it he slipped on the polished floor, was caught by the young Archduchess Marie Antoinette, and promptly proposed marriage. The story is almost certainly embellished, but it captures something true about Schönbrunn: this was a place where genius and royalty collided, sometimes awkwardly.

Emperor Franz Joseph was born here in 1830, spent his childhood summers here, and eventually died here in 1916 after a sixty-eight-year reign — making this palace the backdrop to both the peak and the collapse of the Habsburg Empire. The gardens stretch across 1.2 square kilometres, featuring the world's oldest zoo (founded 1752), a palm house with 4,500 plant species, and the Gloriette hilltop folly where you can look back at the palace and understand exactly why UNESCO gave this place World Heritage status in 1996.