Vienna museums

The city’s museums are among the best in the world, displaying many objects of global importance and featuring top international exhibitions.

• See also: How to save money on museum visits | Contemporary art in Vienna

Art museums

Vienna is a bit of a paradise for art lovers. It’s hard to go a few metres without stumbling into something that would fetch a few million at Sothebys. Like these top artworks, for example.

(The Kunsthistorisches Museum at night)

The Kunsthistorisches Museum group covers various historical art collections, including:

• The Kunsthistorisches Museum itself (Museum of Art History), which contains the paintings (Bruegel, Rubens etc.), the Kunstkammer, the coin collection, the Egyptian collection, and the Greek & Roman antiquities

• The Schatzkammer – the Imperial Treasury with its crown jewels and ecclesiastical relics. As you can imagine, the ruling Habsburg dynasty put together quite a collection over the centuries

• The Weltmuseum – a modern ethnographic museum you can consider a museum of people and cultures, full of artifacts from around the world. The same building houses the historical instrument collection and the imperial armoury

• The Ephesos Museum – a small collection of statues, reliefs, and other antiquities from excavations at the Turkish site of what was once a large Greek and Roman city

• The Wagenburg – located on the grounds of Schönbrunn Palace featuring the Imperial carriage collection and an exhibition on Empress Elisabeth

Other art museums include:

(An entrance to the Museumsquartier)

• The Albertina – home to a mammoth collection of art (including Dürer’s Young Hare), most of which only comes out of storage for the many temporary exhibitions. The permanent exhibition covers the likes of Monet, Picasso, Cézanne, Chagall etc..
  • A second site – the Albertina Modern on Karlsplatz – focuses (as you might guess from the name) on modern and contemporary art

• Belvedere – various locations in and around Prince Eugene of Savoy’s Vienna palaces with temporary and permanent exhibitions featuring everything from medieval to contemporary art. Home to Klimt’s The Kiss (probably Austria’s most famous work of art and possibly in the global top 10)

• The MuseumsQuartier or MQ – a centre for modern culture with exhibition spaces, cafes, bars, shops, and several on-site art museums, including:
  • The Leopold Museum (famous for its Schiele and Klimt collection)
  • The Museum of Modern Art (MUMOK)
  • The Kunsthalle

• The Kunst Haus Wien – home to the Hundertwasser Museum and temporary photo exhibitions. The building itself is worth a look in its own right, before you even get to the works of art within

• The MAK Museum of Applied Arts – a lovely museum covering (shock!) the applied arts and design, and notable for really innovative and excellent temporary exhibitions

• The Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien – hosts a series of temporary exhibitions on the more contemporary side of artistic life, borrowing works from prestigious private and museum collections

• The Wien Museum MUSA – another museum hosting short-term art exhibitions. Usually focuses on contemporary Viennese art, as well as showcasing the work of young artists

• The Augarten Porcelain Museum – attached to the famous company of the same name and displaying a mix of classic and contemporary porcelain pieces

• The Schottenstift Museum – the abbey’s in-house museum with various secular and ecclesiastical treasures. Home to the fabulous 15th-century Schottenaltar panels

• The Ernst Fuchs Museum – housed in the restored Otto Wagner Villa and filled with the art, design, decor, and character of the renowned Austrian artist, Ernst Fuchs

Museums of music

(Museum at Schubert’s birthplace)

A vast number of famous composers, musicians and singers lived in Vienna, so various museums pay appropriate tribute. For example:

• The Haus der Musik – as well as a general museum of sound, the House of Music has a series of rooms dedicated to various composers with a strong historical connection to Vienna, including Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Schubert, Mahler, Brahms, etc.

• The Beethoven Museum – covering his life, works, music, and legacy. Located in the very house where he (probably) wrote his Heiligenstädter Testament

• The Beethoven Pasqualatihaus – a small museum in a city-centre house he once lived in. More of a homage than a museum

• The Mozarthaus – containing both the only remaining original home of Mozart and his family, as well as a museum dedicated to his many years in Vienna and the music he wrote in the city

• The Haydnhaus – Haydn’s final residence with exhibitions on his work and the times he lived in (with a small Brahms exhibition, too)

• Schubert’s Geburthaus – a small museum in the house where Schubert was born and spent his early childhood

• Schubert’s Sterbewohung – and at the other end of the circle of life, this is the apartment where Schubert died

• The Strausswohnung – a small museum with biographical items and displays. Strauss wrote The Blue Danube here

• The Strauss Museum – packed full of memorabilia and audio stations, and dedicated to the Strauss dynasty as a whole

Discover other historical locations for Vienna’s famous musicians, artists, and composers here.

Other museums

(Judenplatz location of the Jewish Museum)

It’s not all about the art and music, of course. Vienna has numerous other museums. For example:

• The Natural History Museum (Naturhistorisches Museum) – filled with geological, anthropological and zoological displays. And dinosaurs! Home to the over 29,000 years-old Venus of Willendorf statue

• The central Hofburg complex – the former winter and city-centre palace of the Habsburgs, various bits of which now house museums and collections. For example:
  • Sisi Museum – this tells the story of the life of Empress Elisabeth, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph
  • Silberkammer – the Imperial silver collection, which contains a lot of tableware, crockery and similar, whereby you really need more fancy words to describe the kind of pieces within
  • The Kaiserappartements – the Imperial apartments occupied by Elisabeth and Franz Joseph in the late 19th century

• The Jewish Museum – Freud had to flee Vienna after the rise to power of the Nazis. To discover more about the history of the Jewish community in the city, visit this excellent museum

• The Museum of Illusions – a place of amusement and bemusement, not to mention heaven for selfies and Instagram pics

• The Wien Museum, which manages many of the other sites mentioned on this page but also has a central site covering Viennese art, history and culture

• The Heeresgeschichtliches Museum – technically the Museum of Military History, but really a history museum with a military focus. Among many historic exhibits…the car Franz Ferdinand was in when assassinated in Sarajevo, precipitating World War I

• The Technical Museum – full of interactive displays and thousands of exhibits tracing technological development through the years. Everything from antique irons to wheelchair simulators

• The Remise – the city’s public transport museum, full of old-timer trams and other vehicles, as well as interactive information displays

• The House of Austrian History – a new museum that covers the country’s more recent, post-Habsburg history

• The Sigmund Freud Museum – dedicated to the father of psychoanalysis. Reopened in 2020 after a complete refurbishment and redesign

• The Hofmobiliendepot – the Imperial furniture museum filled with, well, furniture (but other items, too) that would make antique experts squeak with joy

• The Theatermuseum – housed in the baroque Palais Lobkowitz, where Beethoven often visited. Holds temporary exhibitions related to theatrical history but also features the Eroica Saal and a remarkable collection of paintings

• The Children’s Museum – located in the Schönbrunn Palace complex. You can entertain the little ones with insights into life for the average imperial toddler

• The Dom Museum – home to many of the treasures of Stephansdom cathedral, but also (unexpectedly) some modern art

• The Literature Museum – journey through the literary history of Austria. Lovely display architecture and also includes the original office of the writer Franz Grillparzer

• The Papyrus Museum – a globally-important collection of papyrus fragments and documents dating back up to 3000 years, as well as other items from ancient Egypt

• The Globe Museum – a unique collection of terrestrial, celestial, moon and planet globes, some approaching 500 years old. “Here be dragons” (or Australia)

• The Esperanto Museum – introduces you to the history and importance of the language

• The Hermesvilla – a former summerhouse built for Empress Elisabeth in the 1880s, now fully restored. Tucked away in the wooded surrounds of the Lainzer Tiergarten nature park

Watch this space as I get round to visiting more locations.