The Wüstenhaus Schönbrunn (''Schönbrunn Desert House'') is a

desert A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...

botanical exhibit in Vienna, Austria. It is located in the Sonnenuhrhaus (“Sundial House”), which was built in 1904 as the newest of the four botanical houses in Schönbrunn Palace Park. The desert exhibit opened in 2004 as a counterpart to the “Rainforest House” that opened in 2002 in the nearby Zoo Vienna. GuentherZ 2006-12-27 Sonnenuhrhaus 1336

History

The Sundial House stands opposite the Schönbrunn Palm House (''Palmenhaus''; another botanical exhibit), directly between the Hietzing Gate and the Zoo. The unprepossessing building owes its name to the

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...

(''Sonnenuhr'') located in the gardens to the south. It was built with the encouragement of Charles von Hügel – diplomat, explorer and founder of the Vienna Horticultural Society – to replace an earlier greenhouse which could no longer meet its plants' needs. At first it housed the plants of the extensive “New Holland Collection” which Hügel had assembled, and which had been acquired by the Imperial Court in 1848, and later expanded with plants from southern Africa and the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

that required similar conditions. The architect of the 1904 building was Alphons Custodis.Wüstenhaus
Home page on the Zoo website. A

bomb attack The following is a list of terrorist incidents that have not been carried out by a state or its forces (see state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism). Assassinations are listed at List of assassinated people. Definitions of terroris ...

in February 1945, which almost totally destroyed the windows of the nearby Palm House, left the bulk of the Sundial House's glazing intact, probably because the Palm House stood between it and the bombed area, and because the Sundial House had windows which were roughly parallel to the spreading blast waves (unlike the Palm House). A number of plants from the Palm House were therefore brought here for safekeeping, where space allowed. The Sundial House again served as a refuge between 1986 and 1990, while the Palm House was renovated. In April 1990 the first

butterfly zoo A butterfly house, conservatory, or lepidopterarium is a facility which is specifically intended for the breeding and display of butterflies with an emphasis on education. Some butterfly houses also feature other insects and arthropods. Butterf ...

in Austria was established in the Sundial House, but it was transferred to the greenhouse in the Burggarten in 1998. Rust on the steel framework caused the building to be closed in 1998 and renovated from 2000 to 2003. The Desert House was finally established here by a joint project between the Zoo and the Austrian Federal Gardens (''Bundesgärten''), which have managed the building since 1918 as successor to the Imperial and Royal Court Gardens. The exhibition includes

succulent plant In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meani ...

s from the Federal Gardens, and small animals under the care of the Zoo, such as

desert jerboa The genus ''Jaculus'' is a member of the Dipodinae subfamily of dipodoid rodents (jerboas). ''Jaculus'' species are distributed in desert and semi-arid regions across northern Africa, the Sahara, the Horn of Africa, Arabia, the Middle East, and ...

s, reptiles and birds.

Notable features

* Two '' Welwitschias'' (one male and one female), the rare and endangered desert plant discovered in 1859 by the Austrian

Friedrich Welwitsch Friedrich Martin Josef Welwitsch (25 February 1806 – 20 October 1872) was an Austrian explorer and botanist who in Angola was the first European to describe the plant '' Welwitschia mirabilis''. His report received wide attention among th ...

. They can live up to 2,000 years; the two individuals in the Desert House, however, stem from the Frankfurt University Botanic Gardens and are no more than 40 years old.Wüstenhaus als Beispiel für gelungene Kooperation der Bundesgärten mit dem Tiergarten Schönbrunn
Austrian Government (''Lebensministerium''), 14 July 2004. Retrieved 30 August 2010. * The distinctive, rose-like cactus '' Pereskia''.

Architecture

300 ft. long, 45 ft. wide and 50 ft. high, the building is fully glazed on the roof and the south face, while the north face is walled up. With a total floor space of 14,000 sq. ft., the interior is divided lengthwise into three sections; there are two annexes to the central section, namely a plant-rich east wing which serves as the entrance hall, and a west wing used as a coldhouse.

Notes

External links

Home page on the Zoo website

The Desert Experience House
From the Schönbrunn Palace website.

History

Notable features

Architecture

Notes

External links

Further reading