Photo/Illutration Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna is set to be twinned with Himeji Castle in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture. (Provided by the city government)

HIMEJI, Hyogo Prefecture--Hilltop Himeji Castle, the city’s pride and a World Cultural Heritage site, will be twinned with Schonbrunn Palace in Austria, city officials announced.

The Vienna tie-up will mark the fourth sister castle arrangement for the historic site, also known as White Heron Castle for its brilliant white exterior and supposed resemblance to a bird taking flight.

In October, Himeji Castle was twinned with Wawel Royal Castle in Cracow, southern Poland.

It became a sister castle to Chateau de Chantilly in France in 1989 and to Conwy Castle in Wales in 2019.

Schonbrunn Palace was mainly used as a summer residence by successive Habsburg dynasty rulers.

Along with its gardens, the castle is listed as a World Cultural Heritage site.

City officials started consultations for the sister castle partnership as an Austrian government delegation visited Himeji Castle in the spring.

The municipality will invite palace officials to the city during the Osaka Kansai Expo in spring to formally sign the partnership.

Wawel Royal Castle was the world’s first castle to be inscribed as a World Cultural Heritage site.

Himeji officials began discussing the partnership after they were approached by the Polish ambassador to Japan with the suggestion in 2017.

The partnership agreement was signed during a ceremony held online on Oct. 16.

As the first of a series of projects based on the partnership, the Himeji city government invited young Ukrainian evacuees who fled to Poland after Russia’s invasion to stay in the city from Oct. 20.

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