Gloriette

Take a look at this colonnade towering over the palace gardens. Built in 1775, the Gloriette was Maria Theresa's monument to one of Austria's greatest military triumphs: the Battle of Kolin.

June 18, 1757. Frederick the Great of Prussia, who had never lost a major battle, marched his 32,000 troops against 44,000 Austrians near Prague. Five hours later, the Prussians fled, leaving 14,000 dead. Austria had stopped Frederick's advance on Vienna. Maria Theresa was so ecstatic she founded a military order that same year.

Eighteen years later, architect Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von Hohenberg designed this temple to commemorate that victory. The giant imperial eagle on top? Symbol of Habsburg power. The inscription below? Dedicated to Joseph II, Maria Theresa's son.

Here's what most visitors miss: those twin columns, the arches, the capitals? They're recycled. They came from Schloss Neugebäude, a Renaissance palace that was never finished. When the army turned it into a powder magazine in 1774, Maria Theresa ordered its valuable stonework stripped and brought here.

The glazed central hall became Emperor Franz Joseph I's breakfast room. He would sit here looking down at his summer palace, in a building made from victory over Prussia's greatest king.