Heeresgeschichtliches Museum

Lonely Planet review

In the wake of the 1848 rebellion, Franz Josef I ordered the Arsenal built; the large barracks and munitions depot was completed in neo-Byzantine style in 1856. Its handsome façade belied its true purpose: It was a fortress built to quash any further uprisings. At the same time, Franz Josef established the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Museum of Military History) within the Arsenal, making it the oldest public museum in Vienna.

The museum is laid out chronologically, starting on the 1st floor with the Thirty Years' War (1618-48) and working its way through to the Hungarian Uprising and the Austro-Prussian War (ending in 1866). In between are the Napoleonic and Turkish Wars. Impressive booty from various conlicts is on display.

The ground floor displays the imperial army uniforms from 1867 onwards. Yet the room covering the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo in 1914 - which set off a chain of events culminating in WWI - steals the show. The car he was shot in (complete with bullet holes), the sofa he bled to death on and his rather grisly blood-stained coat are all on display. The eastern wing covers the Republic years after WWI up until the Anschluss in 1938. The last room is devoted to Austria's navy when the Adriatic coastline fell within its territory.