Viking River Cruise

Anniversary 50 years of Franz Joseph memorial church. 1800s. First Pic of June 4. Klimt is the most famous artist of Austria. The Kiss. Maria Theresa inherited the palace and used it as a summer residence. She had 16 children. Added second floor and wings and over 1000 workers. 1441 rooms. Palace went into state ownership after WWI. Now 200 Apts can be rented.

Winter palace is actually close in city center. Main city had high walls and no breeze and no seweage. Land bought in late 16th century. Found a spring and built hunting lodge. Destroyed by Ottomans. Rebuilt after Ottomans. Huge courtyard for all the carriages.

Baroque style from France Versailles. Gloriette Pavillion was higher up because it represented the whole dynasty. Neptune emporer of all waters and the Empress is the leader of all lands.

Charles V sun never set on the empire. Included Spain and the Spanish colonies. Opened gardens in late 1700s. Stalin and Hitler were both homeless in Vienna in 1913. Franz Joseph born and died here. Edison himself brought electricity to the palace in 1900. Used match chords to light all the candles at once on a chandelier.

120 feet long and 30 feet high. Imperial Hall. Abundance, Military and Glorious rule with the empress and emporer on the ceilings. Rococo style and guilded gold.
Kenedy and Kruschev met here in the Imperial Hall. Annual New Years Day concert here. National Operas ballet.

Continuosly cleaned and restored. Marie Antoinette was daughter of Mary Theresa.

Hitler annexed Austria. No Allied bombs hit the palace except one, but it didn't detonate. The military fresco was repainted after the war. Irony there.
Austrian succession war 1743 reconquered Prague. Celebrated with horses carrying women in circles. Carousel room has paintings of that celebration after the war. Marie Theresa had to fight that war because she was the only heir and a woman.

Mozart started with Maria Theresa at age 6. Charles I last emporer and forced to abdicate in this room. 640 years of Hapsburg line. Died in exile in Portugal. His wife lived to 1989.

Her husband died 15 years before her. Black room was for mourning and remembering him.

Napoleon occupied palace in 1809. Napoleon had a Hapsburg wife and a son. Servant quarters and hallways behind imperial rooms. Emporer of 2 empires for 2 years. Ferdinand I was an invalid as a result of inner breading. Franz Joseph took over as nephew of the double Emporer.

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