Vienna Zoo - the oldest Zoo in the world
The Zoo can trace its roots back to 1570 - to a game park on the palace grounds of Schönbrunn. The founder of the Zoo was Franz Stephan von Lothringen, the husband of the Austrian sovereign, Maria Theresia. He considered the existing animal cages so small that he appointed the Dutch court gardener Adrian van Steckhoven and Jean Nicolas Jadot de Ville-Issey to create a menagerie which was completed after a year of construction on July 31, 1752.