Combine pleasant and useful: Top 10 museums in Vienna

Museum of Art History

The Museum of Art History is Vienna's largest art museum, and that's saying a lot, because, Vienna is very generous with museums! Officially, this temple of art was founded in 1889, but its collection is much older and originates from the royal collections of the Habsburg dynasty.

To showcase the richness of the royal collection, an architectural ensemble of two identical buildings opposite each other was built. The first floor of the museum is dedicated to antiquity, Ancient Egypt and the art of the Middle East. The second floor is European art. Italy, Spain, the Netherlands. Full immersion into the beautiful universe of the Renaissance and Baroque.

The museum keeps the works of Titian, Bruegel, Bosch, Dürrer, Rembrandt and many other masters of art.

Hofburg Palace

The Hofburg Palace also claims the title of Vienna's grandest museum complex.

Spread over 240,000 m2, the castle occupies an entire district of the capital. Here visitors have the opportunity to visit numerous palace offices and apartments, where once lived and worked representatives of the Habsburg dynasty.

Also in the castle you can visit the Imperial Treasury, which, despite the plundering after the fall of the monarchy, managed to preserve the most valuable exhibits of porcelain and silver. Also on the territory of the complex you can see the chambers of the famous Princess Elizabeth, the treasury of the Habsburg dynasty, where one of the largest emeralds in the world is kept, as well as the crown and sword of the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire.

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Albertina Art Museum

Located in the historic center of Vienna, the Albertina Gallery is a unique combination of imperial luxury and great art. The beautiful building — a former residential palace of the Habsburg dynasty and an art museum of world significance — attracts tourists and connoisseurs of cultural heritage from all over the world.

The museum offers a rich exhibition featuring works of art from the 15th century to the present day. The thematic exhibitions of works by Albrecht Dürer, Van Gogh or Raphael in the Albertina Gallery have attracted a record number of visitors in recent years.

The exposition here is permanent, featuring robots by old masters, masterpieces of classical art nouveau painting, contemporary art and photographs.

The Third Man Museum

This is a private museum dedicated to the old movie The Third Man, telling the history of Austria between 1945 and 1955. At that time, the country was divided into occupation zones, and the inhabitants struggled to survive in total devastation.

The spy thriller has long become a classic of world cinema and even received an Oscar statuette for best camerawork. For many years, a frequent collector named Gerhard Strassgschwandtner collected unique items somehow related to the movie. And today in the Museum of the Third Man you can see snapshots of the creators of the picture, real advertising posters, letters, newspapers and much more. It's worth seeing the painting before visiting the gallery, otherwise the visit risks not being as exciting.

Schoenbrunn Palace

Another must-see attraction in Vienna is Schoenbrunn Palace. This is the summer residence of the Habsburgs themselves. The ensemble blends harmoniously with nature — the park beautifully becomes an extension of the palace.

More than six million tourists visit this monument every year. Schoenbrunn Palace is the work of the famous Baroque architect Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. Its beginnings can be attributed to 1559.

He had the ambition to create something better than Versailles! We will not undertake to compare these two sights, but it should be said that Schönbrunn Palace turned out to be really luxurious. The park is made in the French style. Trimmed trees, Neptune's fountain with mythological sculptures create a unique atmosphere. There is also a museum called the House of Palms. In 1996, Schoenbrunn Palace was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Natural History Museum

Apart from its external architectural splendor, this museum is one of the largest science museums in the world - it has more than 20 million valuable exhibits in its collection.

The museum's collection is divided into several departments for the convenience of visitors:

• paleontological department, where collections of fossils, skeletons of dinosaurs and other reptiles, as well as skeletons of primitive people are kept;
• Zoological section, where you can see different species of mammals, amphibians, insects and birds;
• mineralogical department, where you can see a unique collection of minerals, ancient fossils and precious stones.

Some exhibits of the museum are interactive. Here you can watch a huge moving and roaring dinosaur literally like a real one. It will also be interesting for children to play in the hall with laboratory experiments, where everyone can launch a volcanic eruption or create a real lightning bolt.

Belvedere Palace Complex

The Belvedere is a Baroque palace complex in Vienna. It was built by Lucas von Hildebrandt as a summer residence of one of the greatest generals of his time, Prince Eugene of Savoy, in the early 18th century.

It is located in Landstrasse, the third district of the city, southeast of the city center. The Upper and Lower Belvedere together with the surrounding garden form a magnificent Baroque ensemble.

The two palaces now house the Austrian Galerie Belvedere, the most famous art museum in Vienna's Belvedere Palace. Its collection includes paintings from many eras, from the Middle Ages and Baroque to the 21st century.

Sisi Museum

If you are interested in getting to know such a historical figure as Elisabeth of Bavaria (in the circle of the Sisi family), you should definitely visit the museum dedicated to the empress.

In her time, the queen was considered the most beautiful and extraordinary ruler in Europe. It was Elisabeth of Bavaria who played a key role in the truce between Austria and Hungary. However, the personal life of the empress was rife with hardships. The dislike of her mother-in-law, separation from her children, the death of her son and prolonged depression turned a cheerful and kind girl into a gaunt and withdrawn ruler.

Dramatic was also the death of the empress: during an ordinary walk Elizabeth was attacked by an anarchist and fatally wounded. The dying nobleman could not fully understand what happened to her.

House of Music

The huge museum, which occupies 4 floors, will tell you about the history and development of music and make you understand why Vienna is such an esteemed city among the musical beau monde.

The first tier of the museum is dedicated to the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, whose founder is considered to be the famous conductor and composer Otto Nicolai. The expositions on the second floor tell about research in the field of sound phenomena: here you will learn what sounds are made of and how they create music together. This part of the gallery is full of interactive exhibitions and allows visitors to hear the sounds of galaxies, meteorites and even a baby in the womb.

Museum of Modern Art

Most museums in Vienna tell stories of days gone by. This is not the case with the MUMOK Museum, because its collection is dedicated to contemporary art. It is far from classical masterpieces and consists more of provocative works by contemporary artists, installations, abstractions and performances.

The permanent exhibition is dedicated to the art of the XX-XXI centuries and includes masterpieces by surrealists René Magritte and Salvador Dali, abstract paintings and sculptures by Joan Miró, pop art works by Andy Warhol, as well as artists of Viennese sharecropping. In addition to the permanent exhibition, the museum annually organizes 2-3 temporary exhibitions of actual contemporary artists.

The museum has a large bookstore where you can buy books on painting, design, architecture and fashion. It also sells thematic souvenirs with museum symbols and postcards dedicated to the next exhibition.