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Gloriette

Austria

The Gloriette is the last thing the Schönbrunn garden was given, and it shows. Built in 1775 as the final structure of the palace grounds, to plans by Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von Hohenberg, it was meant to do three jobs at once: a temple of glory, the main point de vue that pulls your eye up the slope from the palace, and a lookout over the garden itself from a height of 241 metres above sea level. It is the largest and probably the best known of all glorietttes, the airy garden pavilions of the period. As you climb towards it, the long colonnade spreads wider than you expect. It runs 84.3 metres, or 135.3 metres once the stepped approach is counted, and stands 25.95 metres high while being only 14.6 metres deep. It is a stage set as much as a building.

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