Marie Antoinette Room

Dinners en famille consisted of three to six courses. Whereas on official occasions French cuisine was served, Franz Joseph preferred traditional Viennese dishes when the family dined together. These dishes for family gatherings were not prepared in the Court Kitchen but in a separate kitchen reserved exclusively for family. Franz Joseph was especially fond of the famous Viennese dish called Tafelspitz (garnished boiled beef), while Elisabeth preferred French oysters, fish, roasts and vegetables, with ices for dessert.

The Marie Antoinette Room takes its name from a tapestry that hung in this room until the end of the Monarchy. The tapestry arrived at Schönbrunn as a gift made by Napoleon III to Franz Joseph and was woven after a painting of Marie Antoinette and her two children by the French artist Élisabeth Vigée-Le Brun from 1787. Hanging in its place today is a portrait of Franz Joseph as youthful emperor at the beginning of his long reign.