The Museums of Vienna

Pilot Guides Austria, Travel

Vienna can definitively claim to be a world home of museums, housing a staggering collection of 153 museums and that’s not including the numerous palaces, monuments and statues that there are to see.The city houses one of the most concentrated collection of museums and largest cultural spacesi in the world.

Here is a short selection:

Art and Natural History

Most famous are probably the Kunsthistorisches museum (Art History) and the Naturhistorisches museum (Natural History) – the two buildings are mirror images of each other and are an impressive sight when seen from the gardens separating them. In the Kunsthistorisches museum you can see the incredible wealth of art amassed by the Habsburg dynasty over the centuries. Artists range from Klimt to Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

The Naturhistorisches museum is one of the largest museums of Natural History in the world. Again it houses the belongings of the Habsburgs – one of whom had a particular penchant for rare stuffed animals and other oddities. Minerals, dinosaur models and the world’s largest collection of human skulls are all to be found here.

Death and Crime

The Kriminal museum houses the documentation of all manner of grisly crimes that have taken place in Vienna. Unfortunately the press cuttings and explanations are all in German but the photographs speak for themselves. Along the same theme is the Bestattungs museum – the Undertakers museum! This holds treasures such as the reusable drop-bottom coffin and coffins fitted with alarm bells for those with the fear of being buried alive.

Tobacco

It seems apt that a city that doesn’t know the meaning of ‘no smoking’ should have the have an extensive Tabak museum. This lies in the Museums quarter – one of the biggest cultural spaces in the world. The Museumsquarter is also home to the Leopold Museum and the Museum of Modern Art.