Dear Alexandre,

I hope your expedition through Vienna will one day lead you to the Tiergarten Schönbrunn. It is an exciting place, especially for Viennese people my age and older who still remember what a horrible place it was in the 80’s and how it developed into a beautiful pearl after putting the welfare of the animals first. A fascinating story from many points of view, but I will try not to fangirl about the animals or the successful breeding programs for endangered species or the role of the zoo as a place for education. Because I want to talk about the Pavillon. Everyone who ever set foot in the Tiergarten will have noticed the Pavillon in the middle of the oldest part. It is well centered, octagonal, painted in Schönbrunn yellow and today it serves as a (quite expensive) restaurant.

It was around 1745 when Franz I. Stephan von Lothringen, the husband of Maria Theresia, started with his plans of building a menagerie in the garden of Schönnbrunn Palace. It was the year he was voted Kaiser of the holy Roman Empire, but that doesn’t mean, he had much to say. Famously it was Maria Theresia herself who did most of the reigning. Franz Stephan had enough time to follow his passions, his most famous one being science. A lot of his menagerie can still be seen today, as Vienna has strict monument protection laws, as it is visible throughout the city. Those laws seemed to be a problem, when it became clear that you can not hold wild animals in the too small areas in a way that would not count as torture in the modern society. But as a clever veterinarian from Tyrolia finally took over the zoo, he build around the historic part. So now, you can walk in the old torture cells for big cats, whilst watching them frolicking in bigger and greener places, where they serve as ambassadors for their protection and the protection of their habitats and….and I said, I wouldn’t write about that…

Some major pieces are missing though, because of some bombings in the 40’s were most of the animals died and…. No, that was also not what I wanted to write about…

Visit the Pavillon! It has some beautiful artwork in it, paintings inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphosis (and not the Kafka one – although that would be funny, I guess. The Tiergarten features a nice house for bugs & Co., so it would be kind of fitting, I guess – if you consider time travel possibilities for the artist). When I first stepped in as a grown up, I was confused in seconds. Schnitzel on the menu, but…but…but there are only tables in the pavilion, there is certainly no kitchen in that small octagon. Yes, I found the answer to that quite quick, but still I liked the notion, that that little pavilion is some kind of magician. The Schnitzel on the menu reveals, that there must be something underneath, a functioning cellar for sure (by the way, is there already a magic trick called the Schnitzel reveal? Might be an opportunity there, ready to grab). And yes, there is a huge cellar system underneath, where food for the animals was stored for example. And there is a kitchen down there now. But there is also a rumor out there… come a bit closer, because I need to whisper it. I will tell you, but I need to suspiciously look around first. Do you see my fingers moving in mythical magic gestures? It is secret rumor time! It is said that Franz Stephan of Lothringen had a secret alchemist laboratory right underneath his breakfast Pavillon…. Uhuuuhuuu…. Look at my fingers trying to imitate Bela Lugosi’s Dracula hands! And I am not even Hungarian (Caution: This is an Ed Wood reference)… Secret alchemy laboratory….

So this little Pavillon is a magician itself! Built by a mighty alchemist, who held all the power! Maybe he used that power to influence Maria Theresia’s father Karl, to make him his successor? Maybe he brew a mighty love potion to make the heir of the Habsburg throne fall in love with him?

I need to whisper again: Are you done with letting your imagination flow? Do you need more time to feel the secret magic? I wait in the next paragraph for you. Take your time.

Hi, nice to be read by you again. Franz Stephan wasn’t that secretive, I think. He was a member of a secret society though. But how secret is a secret society that is world famous? He was a Freemason and he embraced the idea of doing humanitarian things like free education. Shortly after he had built his menagerie, he let school classes in to see the first exotic animals in their life which probably widened their horizon and worldview. Imagine never seeing an elephant before in pictures or TV and your first encounter is an actual elephant standing in front of you! They are mind blowing in this century, what a surprise they must have been back then! It also was not long till the menagerie was opened for the public in general. But you still remember that I mentioned that Franz Stephan was a hobby scientist. Exotic animals and exotic plants (he paid for an expedition that brought plants from oversees to Vienna for his botanical garden) were only one part of his scientific passion. Another example is, that he bought a huge collection of minerals, fossils and other interesting stuff that grew and grew and in the end his collection was the basic stock that founded the National History Museum – which is another great place to visit in Vienna by the way.

Franz Stephan did experiments as well and to do that, he had a laboratory. And that is the thing with the alchemist story. Maybe he had a laboratory underneath the famous Pavillon. Maybe for summer experiments, when he lived in Schönbrunn Palace, but I read that he had a real laboratory in some palais so why would he need a secret one? But it is maybe a fun fact that he is famous for being good with money. He built some modern factories that made a lot of profit for example and when he died and his son Josef II. inherited that fortune, he could fill Austria’s from war empty treasury with it. Of course someone who is really, really into alchemy could argue that his golden touch is proof of his success and that he indeed manufactured gold in his secret cellar laboratory (out of elephant dung I want to imagine). Other folks, who are really into investing money so they can get rich without actual work, might want to paint him as a financial genius, whose success was based on market observations (and Crypto probably). I myself am glad that he was really into the enlightenment movement. He founded two of my favourite places in Vienna and he taught his son Josef II. well, so that he could after his mother died take over and make some real reforms for the people – like allowing jews to go use streets whenever they want, wearing what they want, to point out one example. Franz Stephan also brought Gerard Van Swieten to Vienna, where he helped founding a medical school, and where he got famous, so Bram Stoker used him as an inspiration for his character of Van Helsing. Intriguing, right? 😉 But that is another story.

You can visit the Tiergarten Schönbrunn every day of the year, they close earlier in the winter, because of the daylight working short days only in that season. It is quite pricy, but they use the money in very nice ways. It is worth a visit for different cool reasons, a magical pavilion is only one of them.

Enjoy Vienna my friend and find some gold 🌟☺️