Compare and Contrast Palaces

The palaces we visited were the Schönbrunn palace and the Hofburg palace in Vienna, and the Kew in London. In my opinion these three palaces had more differences than they did similarities. The size of the estates, the interior, the purpose for them, and the exterior were never the same between all three. When comparing Schönbrunn to Hofburg, I noticed that the size of the personal rooms in Schönbrunn were much smaller but that the dining rooms and meeting halls were much bigger. This was because the Schönbrunn palace was designed as a summer home and to hold important political meetings away from the public. The need was there for these great halls in Schönbrunn where as Hofburg was more of a home environment. The main similarity between these two was the size of the palace itself. Both were enormous buildings that took up a lot of space. Although they were both very big the actual size of the estates were very different. This was due to the location of the two though. Since Hofburg was located in the center of the city it was very enclosed and didn't have as much space to spread out like the Schönbrunn palace did. This palace spread across acres and had a big garden that wrapped around the palace. This is where Schönbrunn is very similar to the Kew in London. Both of the estates that these palaces were on were huge and could've easily fit a ton more buildings. But the thing that separates the Kew from both Schönbrunn and Hofburg is the size of the palace itself. The Kew was very small compared to the other two and it could've been placed in the middle of the city and you wouldn't have recognized it as a "palace". Since it was a much smaller building it naturally felt much more like a home than did the other two in Vienna. It was designed this way because the purpose of it was to raise a family and be far away from the public eye. There were never any political meetings held here, instead they all took place in Buckingham palace in the city of London.