Kunsthistorisches Museum
Snapshot
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Prices & Opening Times
Prices
Adults: € 21 | Reduced: € 18
Reduced: Over 65 & Students under 26
Vienna City Card holders: € 20
“Habsburg Treasures” Combined ticket: € 27
(Kunsthistorisches + Imperial Treasury)
“Master Ticket” Combined ticket: € 30
(Kunsthistorisches + Imperial Treasury)
Audioguide: € 6 | Guided Tour: € 6
Free Entry
Vienna Pass holders
Children and youth under 19
(or under 26 residing in the EU)
Opening times
10 am – 6 pm (Tue – Sun)
10 am – 9 pm (Thursday)
Closed on Mondays
Highlights & Photos
Highlights
- The Vermeyen Cartoons
- The Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection
- Chamber of Art and Wonders
- “The Madonna of the Meadow” – Raphael
- “Madonna with the Pear” – Dürer
- “Peasant Wedding” – P. Brueghel the Elder
- “Saint Gregory with Scribes” Panel
- “The Crowning with Thorns” – Caravaggio
Photos
How to get there
Location
Maria-Theresien-Platz
Transports
From the Westbahnhof:
Subway train U3
Station “Volkstheater”
From the Hauptbahnhof:
Tram D
“Burgring/Kunsthistorisches Museum” stop
Eat & Drink nearby
Zum Schwarzen Kameel
Bognergasse 5, Vienna
Phone: +43 1 5338125
Website (german only)
8.00 am to midnight (Daily)
A gourmet restaurant that serves traditional Viennese cuisine with a modern twist
Plachutta Wollzeile
Wollzeile 38, Vienna
Phone: +43 1 5121577
Website (english version)
11.30 am to 11.30 pm (Daily)
Kitchen closes: 11.00 pm
Known for their traditional Viennese cuisine, particularly their Tafelspitz (boiled beef) and various kinds of Knödel (dumplings)
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Full Guide
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The Kunsthistorisches Museum, often known as the Museum of Art History in Vienna, is an absolute must-see for everyone, even those with a passing interest in culture, art, or history. It can be found in the middle of Vienna’s old city centre, in a bright royal building on Ringstraße that is crowned with an octagonal dome.
Being home to an impressive collection, this museum has earned a reputation as one of the finest museums in the world. It has numerous areas with extensive and permanent collections.
The museum’s displays are so big and spread over three floors.
On the ground floor, you can learn all about the history of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
The Picture Gallery is on the first floor. The Habsburg monarchs put together a unique collection of European paintings from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. It includes Renaissance and mediaeval art masterworks by artists like Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Rembrandt, and Durer.
One of the most significant coin collections in the world is on the second floor.
The galleries here are well-organized and maintained. In galleries, you can see mummies, coffins, canopic jars, sarcophagi, and scarabs to be used in the afterlife. You can also see a collection of ushabti, which were left in tombs to do work for the dead in the afterlife. Plus, there are some clothes, pottery, jewellery, busts, statues, and other temple items.
For instance, in gallery 1, the giant sarcophagus of Pa-di-pep from the end of the 26th dynasty and the Chapel of Ka-ni-nisut, a high-ranking civil servant from the 4th or 5th dynasty, about 4,500 years ago, are some of the most interesting pieces here.
In Gallery 5, which is all about funerary literature, there are scrolls, wall inscriptions, and other things that have the spells and texts needed for a safe journey to the afterlife, including an original papyrus with a picture guide to the underworld.
And don’t just watch the ground because ceilings can also be intriguing here. Gallery 1’s top, for instance, is not propped up by marble pillars but by Egyptian monolithic columns unearthed in Alexandria.
Among the highlights of the museum exhibition are the following:
- A chapel for Kaninisut, numerous sarcophagi and coffins, grave goods such as shabtis and coffins, and votive stelae.
- Examples of the Book of the Dead.
- Divine figures.
- Pottery.
- Objects of daily use such as clothing.
- Masterpieces of sculpture such as the Reserve Head from Giza.
Records say it took 20 years to finish the museum building.
Around 1891, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary opened the building. The Natural History Museum in Vienna, which has a similar layout, also opened simultaneously. These were built between 1871 and 1891.
The emperor had ordered the two Ringstraße museums to be built so that the Habsburgs’ impressive art collection would have a place to live and be open to the public. Both were built in the Renaissance style by Gottfried Semper and Karl Freiherr von Hasenauer.
Now, the museums are on opposite sides of Maria-Theresien-Platz.
In 2013, the wonderful Kunstkammer (Art Room), which had been closed for a decade for repairs, reopened and added to the museum.
The Kunsthistorisches Museum is right in the middle of Vienna, on Maria-Theresien-Platz. It consists of the Neue Berg, the Imperial Treasury, and the Theseustempel, a cluster of buildings opposite the Ringstraße.
Outside the museum, some statues reflect the abstract concepts of art and art history. When you visit, remember the oldest statues at the back of the building and the most recent ones at the front.
Alexander the Great or Pericles, an Athenian politician, are at the back of the building. In the front, you can see famous art locations and Renaissance artists, including Michelangelo and Raphael. On the side, there are pictures of cities like London, Paris, Madrid, and Milan.
The museum’s decor displays the splendour of its art collection and royal patronage.
The museum’s interior reflects the beauty of its art collection and its imperial sponsor.
Stone columns from the 18th era decorate the hallways, as do enormous sculptures and other rare and remarkable artefacts.
The Vermeyen Cartoons
The Kunsthistorisches Museum’s collection would be incomplete without Vermeyen. Weavers created tapestries using the Vermeyen cartoons as 1:1 scale models. Specifically, a set of twelve enormous tapestries documenting Emperor Charles V’s 1535 campaign in Tunis.
Egyptian Collection
The Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection at Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum is often regarded as the finest treasure outside of Egypt. More than 17,000 objects from the Egyptian Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods (around 3500 BC) to the early Christian era are kept in this museum.
Flemish Collection
The museum also has the biggest collection of paintings by the Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel.
From October 2018 to January 2019, the world’s largest show of works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525–1569) took place. Most of the artist’s known sketches and prints were on display, together with three-quarters of his paintings. Of the 40 paintings attributed to him, only 29 were shown in the Vienna exhibition.
The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna is home to twelve paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, making its collection the biggest and most significant in the world. The famous “Tower of Babel” is among the works included, along with “Peasant Wedding,” “Children’s Games,” “Hunters in the Snow,” and others.
Imperial Armoury
Regarding western collections of weapons and armour from the court, the Kunsthistorisches museum is one of the best places you must try. Most of the pieces you would see here were made or bought for political events like military campaigns, Imperial Diets, homage ceremonies, coronations, engagements, weddings, baptisms, and funerals. Here you can see armour made by Tommaso Missaglia, Konrad Seusenhofer, and other well-known armourers.
Greek and Roman Antiquities
Ancient artefacts from Cyprus, Greece, Ancient Rome, and Roman-era Austria may all be found in the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities. This collection is one of the best of its kind because of three primary aspects:
- The unique and spectacular antique cameos, like the famous Gemma Augustea.
- The treasure troves from the great migrations and the early Middle Ages, like the golden treasure of Nagyszentmiklós.
- The collection of vases includes works of art like the Brygos Cup.
Kunstkammer Vienna – a chamber of wonders
This beautiful collection was completely redone in 2013. Emperors and nobles put it together during the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
The Kunstkammer is often called “a museum inside a museum” because it has 20 galleries and 2,200 pieces. Natural things that were thought to have magical powers compete with masterpieces like Maria Theresa’s breakfast set and Benvenuto Cellini’s Saliera (salt cellar).
Italian Collection
Most of the Italian paintings from the 15th to the 18th centuries were bought by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, who started the collection in the 1600s.
Most of them are from the Venetian Renaissance. Durer, Titian, Veronese, Canaletto, and Tintoretto all made important pieces.
Coin Cabinet
This interesting numismatic collection shows off more than 700,000 coins, medals, and banknotes from the last three thousand years. About 2,000 items are displayed in three halls, always open to the public.
In the first hall, you can get an overview of the medal’s history and how it changed from its beginnings in Italy around 1400 until the 20th century. Orders and medals of honour from Austria and Europe are also given out here. The second hall is about the history of coins and paper money, from pre-monetary forms of payment and natural money to the invention of the coin in the Lydian coast area in the 7th century B.C. and up to the 20th century. The third hall is where special shows are held.
German Collection
The German collection has a lot of paintings from the 1600s. Works by Durer, Cranach the Elder, and Holbein the Younger are among them.
Musical Collection
The instruments in the Collection of Historic Musical Instruments are some of the best examples of world Renaissance and Baroque period craftsmanship. Also, the museum maintains a lot of instruments that famous musicians and composers used to play. There are many different kinds of clavichords and Viennese fortepianos in the collection.
You might get a complete picture of the sonic environment in which the composers of Viennese Classicism worked here. The collection’s items came from the Habsburg empire.
During afternoon performances of the Collection of Historic Musical Instruments, people can watch the instruments being played.
The Tower of Babel
Bruegel’s picture of the “The Tower of Babel,” with its many arches and Roman-style details, makes it look like a bigger and taller Roman Colosseum.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder dedicated three works to the Tower of Babel. The two paintings that have been preserved are housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, respectively, and are referred to as the “Great” and “Little” paintings.
Large Self Portrait
This self-portrait is one of Rembrandt’s most important pieces. The artist has created more than sixty self-portraits that reflect his life’s events and his evolution as an artist. He even depicted himself wearing disguises or elaborate attire during his early years.
Here, he’s wearing a simple brown artist’s smock and standing with his hands on his hips and thumbs in his belt.
Blue Hippo
Statuettes of hippopotamuses, which stood for rebirth in the afterlife, were popular grave goods that were put close to the mummy in the coffin. Plants and animals that lived in the marshes where the hippo lived are pictured on its body. The king’s ritual hippopotamus hunt was a sign of his victory over the forces of chaos, which the animal had been linked to since the beginning of time.
The Kunsthistorisches Hippo was recently fixed up. One of his legs was taken off and fixed. The lotus flowers and flying duck on his back show that he lives in a marshy area.
Virgin and Child with a Pear
Dürer shows a bust portrait of the Virgin Mary against a black background. She looks down lovingly at the revered Baby Jesus on a cloth. The child holds a pear slice in his left hand, symbolizing Jesus’ love.
Dürer shows us this through the soft familiarity between the mother and child. The gentle Madonna shape and the passive child fit with late Gothic models, while the pale colouring and soft modelling are more Italian.
Peasant Wedding
The Peasant Wedding is another painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. It shows how much he cared about the poor in his country. Here you can see an actual Flemish peasant wedding. The bride is seated before a green tapestry, her head crowned with a paper flower garland. According to Flemish custom, the groom did not attend the wedding feast. The porridge dishes are carried in on an unhinged door, and the carriers’ posture and gait are also striking.
The Fur
This painting from 1638 is the most personal look at Peter Paul Rubens’s wife, Helene. He married her late in life and often used her features in his art. Experts say that the way the young woman is standing makes her look like Venus, the goddess of love.
Summer
Arcimboldo, who had served as an imperial court painter in Vienna and Prague since 1562, is best known for his series of paintings depicting the four seasons, completed in 1563. Nowhere in “Summer” is the surface of a natural face shown; the whole face is composed of plant fragments and fruit.
Saint Gregory with Scribes
Carved by Artist Meister der Wiener Gregorplatte in the late 10th century, it is a masterpiece from the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Kunstkammer. Pope Gregory the Great (r. 590–604) is shown on the panel, together with the scribes who copied his prayers after the Holy Spirit dictated them. The finely carved relief is among the most important from the Early and High Middle Ages. It was formerly the cover art for a sacrament book. Carved by Artist.
Slab stela
The stela (a flat piece of stone) is more than 2,500 years old and is painted in gold, red, and blue to show Osiris and other Egyptian gods praised in the inscriptions. The stela was found when a tomb in Thebes was being dug up.
The Crowning with Thorns
Caravaggio painted a masterpiece titled “The Crowning with Thorns.” It was purchased by the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna between 1602 and 1607. Baron Ludwig von Lebzelter, an ambassador for the imperial court, bought it in Rome in 1809, but it wasn’t sent to Vienna until 1816.
The painting depicts Jesus being mocked for his claim to supremacy by having a crown of thorns on his head before his death.
It’s definitely worth taking the time to explore the area around the Rodin Museum to get a taste of everything Paris has to offer. Located in the 7th arrondissement isn’t the only attraction in the area. Here are some nearby attractions and shopping places that you can also visit:
- Les Invalides (10 min walk): This complex of buildings is home to several museums, including the Musée de l’Armée, which features an extensive collection of military artefacts, and the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte.
- The Musée d’Orsay (15 min walk): This museum is located on the banks of the Seine and is housed in an old train station. It’s known for its impressive collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art, including works by Monet, Manet, and Degas.
- The Tuileries Gardens (15 min walk): These beautiful gardens are located just across the street from the Louvre Museum and are a great place to take a stroll and enjoy the outdoors.
- Le Bon Marché (10-15 min walk): This is one of the oldest and most famous department stores in Paris, dating back to 1852. It offers a wide range of luxury goods, including fashion, home decor, and gourmet food.
- Saint-Germain-des-Prés (15-20 min walk): This historic neighbourhood is home to many designer boutiques and independent shops selling everything from fashion and accessories to art and antiques.
Located in the centre of Paris, is conveniently close to both the Eiffel tower and the Invalides.
Other attractions in
Frequently Asked Questions
about Kunsthistorisches museum
Situated in Vienna, Austria, the Kunsthistorisches Museum is a renowned art museum that showcases an extensive collection of European paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts spanning from the Middle Ages to the present day.
The museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am to 6 pm. It is closed on Mondays and on certain public holidays.
Find all the updated information on our Snapshot section under “Prices & Opening Times”
Admission to the museum costs €21 for adults, €18 for seniors and students, and is free for children under 19. There are also various discounts and special packages available.
Find all the updated information on our Snapshot section under “Prices & Opening Times”
Yes, you are allowed to take photos for private use without flash in most areas of the museum, except in some special exhibitions. However, selfie sticks are not permitted.
It is recommended to plan for at least 2-3 hours to visit the museum, although some visitors may spend several hours exploring the extensive collection.
Yes, guided tours in several languages are offered at the museum for an additional fee. Audio guides are also available for rent.