Belvedere has to be a highlight of any trip to Vienna. Baroque palaces? Yep. Priceless art? Yep. Photogenic views? Yep. Oh, and is that one of the world’s most famous paintings on the wall? It certainly is.
Quick summary
- International art museum(s) with some unique treasures
- Home to Klimt’s The Kiss
- Regular temporary art exhibitions
- Two early 18th-century palaces with gorgeous gardens
- Skip-the-line tickets available* & free entry with a Vienna Pass
- See also: Other (art) museums
It’s all about Eugene
When you successfully tweak the noses of the Emperor’s enemies, you can expect a little bit more than a thank you note and a bottle of wine.
Which is why Prince Eugene of Savoy – military commander and all-round national hero – managed to accumulate enough lands, positions and wealth to construct some of Vienna’s most impressive buildings. Including the Baroque palaces (one at each end of the gardens) at Belvedere completed in the early 1700s.
Today’s Belvedere is a collection of historical and modern buildings that double up as art museums. Click/tap on the links below for details and visitor tips:
Main Belvedere palace and garden complex
- Upper Belvedere: the ceremonial palace and home to the Klimts, Schieles and other items in the permanent art collection
- Lower Belvedere: the more functional palace and home to temporary art exhibitions
- The Palace Stables: now housing part of the medieval art collection
- The Orangery: now converted into more exhibition space
- The Privy Garden: a more private garden by the Orangery
- Belvedere Gardens: to make the walk between the upper and lower palaces more pleasant (no ticket required)
Elsewhere
- Belvedere 21: the Museum of Contemporary Art
- The Alpine Gardens and Botanical Garden: not officially part of Belvedere, but both border the palace grounds
- The Winter Palace (now closed, unfortunately)
Tickets & visitor information
The two Belvedere palaces open all year and are easy to reach, but don’t share the same opening times.
Upper Belvedere (i.e. Klimt) opens at 9 am, while Lower Belvedere opens at 10 am. Both close at 6 pm (9 pm on Fridays).
The main gardens are free, but (at the time of writing), it’s €16 for a standard adult ticket to Upper Belvedere and €14 for Lower Belvedere. U19s go free and there are other concessions.
I’d strongly recommend a combination ticket – €22 for both palaces. I’d also recommend getting tickets in advance, as the ticket office queues can grow quickly during peak season.
For example, there are skip-the-line tickets here*. Alternatively, the Vienna Pass (review) covers the Belvedere sites.
Visitor tips for Belvedere
Follow the individual links above for site-specific tips, but here is some general advice:
- Don’t worry about language – all display information is in German and English
- If you’re pressed for time, here are some must-do suggestions
- The main ticket office is not in Upper Belvedere palace, but an outbuilding slightly to the west. You’ll also find a shop there with more Klimt souvenirs than you can shake a paintbrush at. Even the cat in the famous photo of the artist has its own souvenir. Lower Belvedere palace and Belvedere 21 also have ticket counters
- Think of the buildings and exhibitions as one and the same. Your Belvedere entrance ticket covers entering the relevant building(s) and viewing whatever’s inside. If an exhibition does not interest you, you may still want to go through it because that’s how you also see the inside of, for example, the palaces.
- In many parts of the main complex, look for a board in German and English describing the decor and perhaps history of the room or area you’re standing in, together with a relevant picture from the early 18th century.
We’re very lucky – a chap called Saloman Kleiner produced a series of copper engravings of the interior and exterior of Belvedere in the 1730s, so we have a pictorial record of what the original palaces and gardens looked like. You can buy a copy in the Belvedere shops.
- The main art collection is in Upper Belvedere. So if you’re pushed for time, this is the one to visit. It’s also where you’ll find the Klimt paintings, including the Kiss. But if you do have time, I recommend popping into Lower Belvedere, too.
- Everything is within a relatively short walk of each other.
- Be warned that with the turnover of exhibitions, one or two areas may be closed temporarily for set up. This does not normally affect the permanent collections at Upper Belvedere, of course.
How to get to Belvedere
Ah, there’s a whole page of advice for that.
Address: Prinz Eugen-Straße 27, 1030 Vienna | Website