8 of the Top Museums in Vienna – Our Insider's Guide

Quite simply one of the world’s great galleries, the Art History Museum displays works acquired by the Habsburg royal family spanning five millennia from ancient Egypt to the late 18th century. Among its countless treasures is the world’s largest collection of Bruegel paintings, including the stunning “Hunters in the Snow (Winter)”. (See if you can spot the man with three legs in his “Peasant Wedding”.) You’ll also see masterpieces by Raphael, Vermeer, Rubens, Dürer, Rembrandt... The list is endless. (Have a close look at Canaletto’s 1760s “Vienna Viewed from the Belvedere Palace” – the view isn’t that much different today.) Add to that artefacts from the ancient world, as well as priceless treasures from the Habsburg court, including the intricate golden “Saliera”, a salt vessel by Benvenuto Cellini – it was scandalously stolen in 2003 and found buried in a forest a few years later. The regal late-1800s building is a work of art in itself – watch out for the wall paintings by Gustav Klimt on the main stairs.

• Maria-Theresien-Platz, 1010 Vienna (U3 Volkstheater)
• Tue–Sun 10am–6pm (Thu until 9pm). Open every day in summer
• Tickets can also be purchased online

Directly opposite the Art History Museum in a virtually identical building, the Natural History Museum unites the Habsburgs’ collection of around 20 million objects, from gemstones and insects to dinosaurs. Star of the collection, and one of the world’s most famed archaeological discoveries, is the tiny, rotund “Venus von Willendorf”, an early Stone Age sculpture found in 1908. The dinosaurs, including lifelike moving recreations, make the NHM a favourite for kids among Vienna museums. You can also admire the world’s largest collection of meteorites, and a simulator lets you experience a virtual strike.

• Maria-Theresien-Platz, 1010 Vienna (U3 Volkstheater)
• Thu–Mon 9am–6pm, Wed 9am–8pm
• Tickets can also be purchased online

Right across the road from the twin museums, the MuseumsQuartier is a beautifully harmonious ensemble of Baroque and contemporary architecture. In a broad courtyard ringed by the former imperial stables, the white cube of the Leopold Museum and the grey basalt block of the mumok make a striking contrast.

The Leopold Museum is focused on modernist Austrian art, including the world’s largest collection of works by Egon Schiele, alongside paintings by Secessionist artists such as Gustav Klimt. The art is exhibited in the context of the remarkable cultural and intellectual flowering of Vienna around 1900. 

• MuseumsQuartier, Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna (U3 Volkstheater)
• Wed–Mon 10am–6pm
• Tickets are also available online

The mumok focuses on 20th and 21st-century art, with a particular concentration on pop art, photorealism, Fluxus and Viennese Actionism, and works by Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik and Marcel Duchamp. You’ll additionally see classical modern art by Picasso, Klee and Mondrian, and it’s also one of the best museums in Vienna for challenging contemporary exhibitions.

• MuseumsQuartier, Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna
• Tues–Sun 10am–6pm (Wed until 8pm)

Looking for museums for the kids during your stay in Vienna? ZOOM Children’s Museum has fun, interactive educational programmes for all ages (pre-booking required). The MQ is also home to exhibits on Austrian architecture at the Architekturzentrum Wien and changing contemporary art shows at the Kunsthalle Wien.

Part of the sprawling Hofburg Palace, the Albertina was long the abode of Habsburg archdukes and duchesses, and you can immerse yourself in the splendour amid which they resided in 20 opulent state rooms. It was Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen who in 1776 founded the gallery’s collection of graphic art, now the largest in the world, spanning Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Rubens to Klimt, Schiele and beyond. Undisputed star is Albrecht Dürer’s remarkably delicate and detailed “Hare” from 1502. As well as the eponymous painters, the permanent exhibition “Monet to Picasso” displays works from Degas and Cézanne to Beckmann, Chagall and Rothko. In addition, the Albertina hosts big-name temporary shows, with recent retrospectives including Baselitz, Basquiat and Helnwein.

• Albertinaplatz 1, 1010 Vienna (U1/U4 Karlsplatz)
• Daily 10am–6pm (Wed & Fri until 9pm)
• Lines can be long at peak times so it’s worth booking tickets online

A 10-minute stroll away on Karlsplatz, the Albertina Modern hosts engrossing large-scale themed exhibitions of modern and contemporary art in the airy halls of the beautifully restored, 1860s Künstlerhaus building.

• Karlsplatz 5, 1010 Vienna (U1/U4 Karlsplatz)
• Daily 10am–6pm
• Tickets €15.90, reduced €13.90, under-19s free. Tickets can also be purchased in advance online (note that separate tickets are required for the Albertina and Albertina Modern)

Across the street from the Albertina, the recently opened Heidi Horten Collection showcases a prestigious cross-section of modern art in a former palais with a spectacular contemporary interior. The late billionairess’s collection ranges from Picasso, Chagall and Schiele to Warhol, Baselitz and a host of others.

• Hanuschgasse 3, 1010 Vienna (U1/U4 Karlsplatz)
• Wed–Mon 11am–7pm (Thu 9pm)
• Set time slot tickets can be bought online

This innovative Vienna museum presents accessible exhibits that delve into the worlds of sound and music, in the former palace where Otto Nicolai founded the legendary Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in 1842. You’ll find treasures from the orchestra’s archives, and you can even try your hand at conducting the (virtual) musicians. There are fascinating interactive displays investigating the nature of sound, a musical staircase, and a floor devoted to great composers who lived and worked in Vienna: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss and Mahler. 

• Seilerstätte 30, 1010 Vienna (U1/U4 Karlsplatz)
• Daily 10am–10pm
• Tickets are available online

There are numerous cultural museums in Vienna in former residences of the classical music titans who lived and composed in the city. Among our favourites are the Beethoven Museum (Probusgasse 6, 1190 Vienna, U4 Heiligenstadt then bus 38A), one of his reputed 67 Viennese addresses, and the Mozarthaus Wien (Domgasse 5, 1010 Vienna, U1/U3 Stephansplatz), where Wolfgang Amadeus spent what were apparently his happiest years.

Jewish life in Vienna is the focus of several exhibitions in the Palais Eskeles, from its beginnings up to its tragic curtailing from 1938 onwards, and then from 1945 to the present. A powerfully moving 3D animation offers a virtual tour of the many synagogues destroyed in 1938. The museum also hosts fascinating temporary exhibitions delving into Jewish themes. Your ticket gives you admission to the medieval exhibition at the Museum Judenplatz (Judenplatz 8, 1010 Vienna), where you’ll also find Rachel Whiteread’s moving Shoah memorial.

• Dorotheergasse 11, 1010 Vienna (U1/U3 Stephansplatz)
• Sun–Fri 10am–6pm
• Tickets are also available online

The newly refurbished and revamped Sigmund Freud Museum analyses the significance of the founder of psychoanalysis in the elegant building in which he lived and worked for almost 50 years until 1938. Original furnishings, manuscripts and memorabilia in the private and treatment rooms bring Freud palpably to life.

Berggasse 19, 1090 Vienna (U2 Schottentor)

Recently reopened after a long renovation and expansion, the historical museum of Vienna presents the story of the city from prehistory right up to the present in a bright ultramodern building that retains all its original ’50s charm. Beginning in the soaring atrium – where an imperial carriage and “Poldi”, a huge whale previously resident in the Prater amusement park, hang from the ceiling – multimedia exhibits on three floors focus on the influences that have affected the lives of the city’s residents. The section covering the Nazi years 1938–1945 and their aftermath is particularly poignant. A massive stone cube on top of the building is the setting for in-depth special exhibitions. 

• Karlsplatz 8, 1040 Vienna (U1/U4 Karlsplatz)
• Tue–Fri 9am–6pm, Sat–Sun 10am–6pm
• Admission to the permanent exhibition is free. Ticket prices for the special exhibitions vary.

The Haus der Geschichte Österreich (Neue Burg, Heldenplatz, 1010 Vienna, U3 Volkstheater) delves into the turbulent history of Austria since the fall of the monarchy in 1918, from the troubled First Republic and Austrians' role in the terror of the Nazi era, via the foundation of the Second Republic in 1955 up to the present.

The lavish palace that Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663–1736) built for himself is one of Europe’s most-treasured Baroque jewels. It’s actually two palaces, separated by formal tiered gardens, and the Upper Belvedere is home to a magnificent collection of art spanning 800 years, all displayed in fabulously opulent halls. There’s a particular focus on Austrian art and Viennese Modernism, and the unrivalled main attraction is Gustav Klimt’s bewitching “The Kiss (Lovers)”. The Lower Belvedere hosts prestigious temporary exhibitions, while the nearby Belvedere 21 has edgy contemporary shows in a quirky ’60s building.

• Upper Belvedere, Prinz Eugen-Straße 27, 1030 Vienna (Tram D Schloss Belvedere)
• Daily 9am–6pm
• Lines can be long so it pays to book a time slot online, and ticket prices are also slightly lower. 

Honourable mentions go to a few of our favourite offbeat hidden gems among Vienna museums:

• Bestattungsmuseum Wien: Appropriate to a city with an affection for the morbid, the museum at the vast Zentralfriedhof cemetery looks at funeral culture in Vienna. (The merch store is a must for anyone with a love of black humour!) Simmeringer Hauptstraße 234, 1110 Vienna (Tram 11 or 71 Zentralfriedhof 1. Tor)
• Pathological-Anatomical Collection in the Narrenturm: The mentally ill were once locked away in the round, 1780s “Madhouse Tower”. Now it houses thousands of pathological exhibits showing all kinds of malformations and diseases – fascinating, but not for the squeamish. Spitalgasse 2, Narrenturm, 1090 Vienna (U2 Schottentor) 
• Third Man Museum: Wonderful memorabilia from Carol Reed’s 1949 film noir classic set in postwar Vienna featuring Orson Welles as Harry Lime. Pressgasse 25, 1040 Vienna (U4 Kettenbrückengasse)