In June, we looked at Ulugh Beg Observatory in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. This month for the Pléiades 1 – Pléiades Neo Point of Interest, we travel to Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria.

About the Point of Interest: Thirty years ago, Schönbrunn Palace and Gardens and Schönbrunn Zoo were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. Since then, Schönbrunn has been regarded not only as one of Austria’s most important cultural assets, but also as an internationally recognized cultural monument and a popular destination for visitors from all over the world. At the end of the 17th Century, Emperor Leopold I commissioned the Baroque architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, who had received his training in Rome, to design an imperial hunting lodge for his son, Crown Prince Joseph, later to become Emperor Joseph I. Replacing the Château de Plaisance built on this site for the dowager empress Eleonora of Gonzaga in 1642, it was to grow into a palatial imperial residence over the course of the 18th Century. The palace and gardens of Schönbrunn are among the most impressive and best-preserved Baroque ensembles in Europe. The symmetrical layout and design of the gardens are inextricably linked to the palace building. Schönbrunn Palace and its extensive outbuildings are the epitome of an imperial residence that had to meet many requirements: the palace provided for a prestigious court in magnificently furnished halls as well as comfortable living quarters for the imperial family, while the side wings housed service and administrative rooms and quarters for the court staff.

These two satellite images show an aerial view of Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria. You can see the incredibly spacious, park-like garden with its winding paths and monuments in the 50-cm Pléiades 1B enhanced color image taken July 16, 2023. Marvel over the geometric shapes of the palace, too, captured in the 30-cm Pléiades Neo 3 enhanced image taken September 3, 2022. PLEIADES © CNES 2026, Distribution Airbus DS.   

Fun Factoids: (1) Schönbrunner Schloßcafé offers specialty coffees and teas, breakfast foods, Viennese cakes, pastries and hot snacks to guests. (2) There are eight shops with a wide range of items to offer guests what’s called an imperial shopping experience. Products range from small souvenirs to exquisite luxury items, offering something to suit every taste. (3) The park at Schönbrunn Palace was opened to the public around 1779 and since then has been a popular recreational amenity for the Viennese population as well as a focus of great cultural and historical interest for international visitors. (4) The park originally was named “Katterburg” and was used as a hunting ground by the Habsburgs, eventually being transformed into a picturesque Baroque complex under Franz I Stephan of Lorraine. (5) In the possession of the Habsburg dynasty since Maximilian II, as former court property the palace passed to the ownership of the Republic of Austria at the end of the monarchy in 1918 and was administered by the Schlosshauptmannschaft Schönbrunn (a local government body) until 1992; which is when Schloss Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H. was founded and entrusted with the administration of the palace as a limited-liability company solely owned by the Republic of Austria. (6) Following the death of Maria Theresa in 1780, the palace at Schönbrunn was not used again until the reign of Emperor Franz II in the early 19th Century. When preparations for the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15 were being made, it became clear that Schönbrunn was in need of renovations and refurbishing to bring it up to date. The renovation of the façade concluded the work and, under the supervision of court architect Johann Aman, the palace was given the characteristic appearance it still retains today.

The 50-cm Pléiades 1 High-Resolution Satellite Constellation

The Pléiades 1 constellation (or at least part of it!) has been in orbit since December 2011 and if you have not had a chance to check out any sample imagery, take a few moments and have a look at the gallery on our website. If you work with high-resolution imagery, you should consider Pléiades 1 and Pléiades Neo for your next geospatial projects.

A variety of Pléiades 1 products are available from both a well-established archive and as a new collection, including 50-centimeter (cm) pansharpened imagery and 50-cm panchromatic – 2-meter (m) 4-band multispectral bundles. We are happy to discuss the technical specifications, pricing and tasking options available with both of these satellite constellations.

The 30-cm Pléiades Neo High-Resolution Satellite Constellation

Pléiades Neo is our newest high-resolution satellite constellation. The first Neo satellite went up in April 2021 and the second in August of the same year. This 30-centimeter resolution constellation will add two more satellites in the next few months and upgrade from daily to intraday revisits. Pléiades Neo has six multispectral bands with 1.2-meter resolution, including a deep blue and two infrared bands, along with a 30-centimeter resolution panchromatic band.

The archive is growing every day, and the satellites are available for new collections, making Pléiades Neo the perfect solution for site monitoring. Check out our beautiful sample images in the Pléiades Neo gallery.

More sample images and technical information about Pléiades 1 can be found on our website here; while the same can be found here for the Pléiades Neo constellation.

The Apollo Mapping sales team can answer any questions you might have about Pléiades 1 and/or Pléiades Neo. We can be reached at (303) 993-3863 or sales@apollomapping.com.