-
Mumok
While the dark basalt exterior of the Museum moderner Kunst (MUMOK; Museum of Modern Art)is impressive, as a whole MUMOK fails to please. Many of the exhibition rooms housing Vienna's premiere collection of 20th-century art are cramped and devoid of natural light. The exhibition centres around fluxus, nouveau realism, an extensive pop art collection and photorealism; expressionism, cubism, minimal art and Viennese actionism are also represented.
-
Museum Für Angewandte Kunst
The Museum für angewandte Kunst (Museum of Applied Arts), better known as the MAK, has an extensive collection of household items better described as art pieces. The building which MAK shares with café Österreicher im MAK is excellent. A High Renaissance construction dating from 1871, it offers some fine features in its own right, especially in its ceilings.
-
Museum Für Völkerkunde
The Museum für Völkerkunde (Museum of Ethnology) has wide-ranging collection of exhibits on non-European cultures. Exhibits are divided into nationalities and cover such countries as China, Japan and Korea, and also the Polynesian, Native American and Inuit cultures. The highlight of the museum is the centrepiece of the Central America section, an Aztec feather headdress once worn by Emperor Montezuma.
-
Museum Für Volkskunde
Housed in 17th-century Palais Schönborn, this folk-art museum gives a taster of 18th- and 19th-century rural dwelling and is stocked with handcrafted sculptures, paintings and furniture from throughout Austria and its neighbouring countries. Many of the pieces have a religious or rural theme, and telltale floral motifs are everywhere. Temporary exhibitions regularly feature and tours in English take place at Sunday.
-
Museum Judenplatz
The main focus of the city's second museum is the excavated remains of a medieval synagogue that once stood on Judenplatz. Built around 1420, it didn't last long: Duke Albrecht V's 'hatred and misconception,' as the museum puts it, led him to order its destruction in 1421. Documents and artefacts dating from 1200 to 1400 are on display. There is a short computer-graphics film on life in Jewish Vienna in the Middle Ages
-
Naturhistorisches Museum
The Naturhistorisches Museum (Museum of Natural History) is the scientific counterpart of the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History) opposite. As you would expect in a natural history museum, there are exhibits on minerals, meteorites and assorted animal remains in jars. Among other things, there are a staggering 2102 diamonds and 761 other gems, specimens of extinct and rare species and a children's corner.
-
Neidhart-Fresken
An unassuming house on Tuchlauben hides quite a remarkable decoration: the oldest extant secular murals in Vienna. The small frescoes, dating from 1398, tell the story of the minstrel Neidhart von Reuental (1180-1240) and life in the Middle Ages, in lively and jolly scenes. The frescoes have lost some colour and are patchy in parts, but are in superb condition considering their age. Neidhart is a municipal museum.
-
Neue Burg Museums
Instruments of all shapes and sizes are on display at the Sammlung Alter Musikinstrumente (Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments. The instruments were designed more for show than for playing; horns shaped like serpents and violins with carved faces are some of the elaborate pieces on display. Note the baroque cabinet incorporating a keyboard from the early 17th century (in Saal XI) - it's beautiful, but a strange combination.
-
Österreichische Filmmuseum
After a much-needed overhaul that did away with the original arse-numbing seats, the Filmmuseum is now a pleasure to visit. The range of films on show is quite extensive; each month features a retrospective on a group of directors or a certain theme from around the world.
-
Palais Epstein
Designed by Parliament's architect Theophil Hansen, Palais Epstein began as home to the prominent Jewish family Epstein before being sold off in 1873 due to financial problems. It later became the infamous Soviet Union headquarters during the 'four men in a jeep' period after WWII. Nicknamed the 'Gateway to Siberia', around 1000 Austrians passed through its doorways on their deportation route.
-
Advertisement
-
Pathologisch-Anatomische Bundesmuseum
Housed in the round Narrenturm (Fool's Tower), which served as an insane asylum from 1784 to 1866, the Pathologisch-anatomische Bundesmuseum (Pathological Anatomy Museum) is not for the faint of heart. Filled with medical oddities and abnormalities preserved in jars of formaldehyde plus the odd wax model with one grisly disease or another, a visit to the museum can be a disturbing or fascinating experience depending on your view.
-
Planetarium
The Planetarium, Vienna's extraterrestrial and interstellar viewfinder, is located on the edge of the Wurstelprater behind the Riesenrad. Shows, normally at , , and or , change on a regular basis, but normally focus on our closest neighbours or star constellations and how Earth fits in. Be aware that all shows are in German only.
-
Pratermuseum
Sharing the same building as the Planetarium is this municipal museum tracing the history of the Wurstelprater and its woodland neighbour, the Grüner Prater. For all the life and splendour the Prater has seen, unfortunately its museum has only a rather dull mix of photos and stories mainly from the 19th century. The antique slot machines, some of which are still functioning, are the museum's saving grace.
-
Puppen & Spielzeug Museum
The Doll and Toy Museum, next door to the Uhren Museum, may sound like it's something for the kids but in reality it's not. The collection is quite intriguing, with dolls from around the world, but there's no hands-on fun with the toys. Look for the Kasperl booth - the equivalent of Punch and Judy, a favourite with Viennese of all ages.
-
Sammlung Essl
This fine gallery is the brainchild of Agnes and Karlheinz Essl, who built it in order to exhibit their collection of art from the 20th and 21st centuries. Expect to see a plethora of big names: Gerhard Richter, Hermann Nitsch, Georg Baselitz and Elke Krystufek are but a few. The construction itself is the work of Austrian architect Heinz Tesar and incorporates clean white lines, an abundance of natural light and plenty of open space.
-
Schatzkammer
The Schatzkammer (Imperial Treasury) is among the best of its kind in Europe. Containing secular and ecclesiastical treasures of priceless value and splendour, the sheer wealth exhibited in the collection of crown jewels is staggering: Room 7 alone has a 2860-carat Colombian emerald, a 416-carat balas ruby and a 492-carat aquamarine, probably enough to wipe the debt of a third-world country.
-
Secession
In 1897, 19 progressive artists broke away from the Künstlerhaus and the conservative artistic establishment it represented and formed the Vienna Secession. They sought to present current trends in contemporary art and leave behind the historicism then in vogue in Vienna. Among them were Gustav Klimt, Josef Hoffman, Kolo Moser and Joseph M Olbrich (a former student of Otto Wagner). Olbrich designed the new exhibition centre of the Secessionists.
-
Sigmund Freud Museum
The apartment where Sigmund Freud lived and worked from 1891 until his forced departure from Vienna with the arrival of the Nazis in 1938 is now a museum devoted to the father of psychoanalysis. A number of his possessions are on display, and his obsessions - travelling, smoking and antique collecting - are well represented by Egyptian and Buddhist statues. Only a handful of his many portraits capture him without his trademark half-smoked cigar.
-
Staatsopermuseum
This shrine to one of Vienna's greatest icons covers the last 50 years of the Staatsoper. Photos on the museum's façade show the damage the building suffered during the war, and its painstaking 10-year restoration. Inside, the museum runs through five decades of highlights such as Karajan's eight-year reign as director and the performance of Lulu . Photos and articles abound but unfortunately it's all quite static and will only impress opera fans.
-
Stift Klosterneuburg
This large Augustinian abbey dominates the small town of Klosterneuburg. Founded in 1114, the abbey's baroque face-lift didn't begin until 1730 and wasn't completed until 1842. The plans actually called for something far grander but fortunately these were not realised, leaving large sections in their original medieval style. The abbey's museum is an eclectic mix of religious art from the Middle Ages to the present day.
-
Advertisement
-
Strassenbahnmuseum
With around 80 trams, the Strassenbahnmuseum is one of the largest of its kind in the world. Avid train- and tram-spotters will love it; the extensive collection ranges from an 1871 horse-drawn trolley to the latest Porsche-designed tram seen on Vienna's streets today, and a couple of buses are thrown in for good measure. Many of the shiny examples can be explored from the inside.
-
Technisches Museum
The Technisches Museum (Technical Museum) has been around since 1918, but thankfully has enjoyed a well-deserved overhaul in the past few years. Covering four floors, it's a shrine to man's advances in the fields of science and technology. There are loads of hands-on displays and heavy industrial equipment, but even with all the modernizing the exhibits recently received, they still look and feel outdated.
-
Theatermuseum
The baroque Lobkowitz palace, which houses the Theatermuseum (Theatre Museum), is as much a delight to visit as the museum itself. Built between 1691 and 1694, it was the first of its kind in Vienna, and gained its name from the noble family who occupied its esteemed halls from 1753 onwards. The Eroicasaal, with its frescoed ceiling, is a sight to behold, and Beethoven conducted the first performance of his Third Symphony in the banquet hall.
-
Uhren Museum
Loudly ticking away behind the Kirche Am Hof is the municipal Uhren Museum (Clock Museum). Opened in 1921 in the Harfenhaus, one of Vienna's oldest buildings, its three floors contain an astounding 21,200 clocks and watches from the 15th century up to a 1992 computer clock. The collection Biedermeier and belle époque models are a highlight. The silence is shattered at the striking of the hour, so those with sensitive ears should avoid these times.
-
Wagenburg
The Wagenburg (Imperial Coach Collection) is Pimp My Ride imperial style. On display is a vast array of carriages, but nothing can compete with Emperor Franz Stephan's coronation carriage, with its ornate gold plating, Venetian glass panes and painted cherubs. The whole thing weighs an astonishing 4000kg. Also look for the dainty child's carriage built for Napoleon's son, with eagle-wing-shaped mudguards and bee motifs.
