Wüstenhaus Schönbrunn 2.48

The Wüstenhaus Schönbrunn is a desert botanical exhibit in Vienna, Austria. It is located in the Sonnenuhrhaus, 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.HistoryThe 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 (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 that required similar conditions. The architect of the 1904 building was Alphons Custodis.A bomb attack 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.