Top Things to do in Austria
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Things to do in Austria, Austria: The Best Specialty Museums
As home to majestic mountains, opulent palaces, and high culture, Austria's attractions are classically sumptuous and enduring. But beyond the waltzes, the strudels, the alpine summits, and Habsburg architecture, its modern cities are proof of just how easily Austria combines the contemporary with the historic.
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1. Museum Wattens
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 1 reviews
2. The Hofburg
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 12,521 reviews
For centuries the Vienna Hofburg was the centre of the Habsburg empire. Today the palace houses three museums which afford historically authentic insights into the traditions and everyday life of the imperial court: The Imperial Apartments with their original furnishings and decoration, the Sisi Museum with its sensitive staging of the empress' life, and the Imperial Silver Collection which contains a comprehensive range of tableware and other utensils used at the imperial court.
Reviewed By GoalieMarty - Ottawa, Canada
We took the Hofburg Vienna ticket which includes the Silver Collection, the Sisi Museum, and the Imperial Apartments with an included audio guide. We bought our tickets on the spot and did not even wait one minute in line. Not sure if it's always like that though. The visit starts with the Silver Collection. Lots and lots of everything you can possibly find on a table. For me, it was nice to see but I got a little bored at the end because I found there was too much and it gets somewhat overwhelming. The audio guide is also a bit dry in my opinion. "Exhibit 24: This silverware collection was designed by Italian master Giovanni Macaroni in 1829 for the visit of King Stradivarius IV who spent 2 weeks at the palace with his court, and bla-bla-bla ...". You get the idea. If you want to save time, I would suggest you skip the dishes. Or at least, don't listen to everything in the audio guide. The visit continues with the Sisi Museum which I found really interesting because it's about her life and all the people in it. Really well made and really well presented. The audio guide is also much more interesting this time around. The Imperial Apartments, the last third of the visit, are truly magnificent. You can feel the opulence and the wealth of this family. The audio guide is again very informative. Both the museum and the apartments are worth spending a little more time in there to take it all in. Overall, we really enjoyed our visit of the Imperial Palace. We also visited Schönbrunn Palace and based on our experience, I would recommend the following. If you want to visit both, start with the Imperial Palace first as Schönbrunn is even more grandiose. If you only have time for one, I would recommend Schönbrunn.
3. MuseumsQuartier Wien
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 3,866 reviews
90,000 m², 60 cultural institutions - the MuseumsQuartier Wien is a place of art and crea tivity. You'll find renowned museums here, as wellas small cultural initiatives, classics of modernism and young artists of the current century. The spectrum ranges from the visual arts to architecture, music, fashion, theater, dance, literature and children's culture, to game culture, street art, design and photography. Innumerable cultural events also take place throughout the year in the courtyards of the MQ, featuring everything from dance performances, exhibition projects and film festivals to literary readings and even DJ line-ups.
Reviewed By JoeBaileyCole - Felino, Italy
There are at least four museums here in this recent addition to Vienna's cultural life constructed inside the former stables of the Hofburg palace. The Leopold Museum has one of the largest collection of the art of Egon Schiele, on of the most important of Viennese 20th Century artists along with many other paintings of the first decades of the 20th century by Kokoschka, Klimt, and architectural works by Loos, Hoffmann, and Wagner. The MUMOK museum has a very large rotating collection of 20th century art and special exhibitions. A very good restaurant is also in the building.
4. Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 9,709 reviews
Experience one of the world's foremost museums! Let yourself be enchanted by works spanning five millennia, from Ancient Egypt to the modern era. Experience unique major works by Dürer, Raphael, Titian and Velázquez as well as the world's largest collection of Bruegel paintings, all in a magnificent setting. The Kunstkammer Vienna, featuring the famous Saliera by Benvenuto Cellini, is a veritable universe of art and beauty guaranteed to transform any visit into an unforgettable experience. Included in the ticket are the collections at the Neue Burg on the opposite side of Vienna's Ringstrasse. Here you will see the instruments used by the great composers and be transported back to chivalrous times when knights held sway and tourneys and hunting shaped courtly life.
Reviewed By Ina5555 - Kyiv (Kiev), Ukraine
The museum was the main goal of my Vienna visit, but I never expected it to be such an excellent introduction into the city and palaces sculptures' motifs as well, underscoring how much power was assigned back then to the art as a means of ideological visual education. Having spent 1,5 days in the museum I have made plenty of personal discoveries and enjoyed new for me artworks (e.g. unexpected parallel to the modern popular mass culture is a 1524 'Arya Stark' self-portrait bearing uncanny resemblance, in fact Parmigianino's enchanting masterpiece). The discoveries haven't stopped after the museum visit ended, because the next day during sightseeing I realized I recognize many of the city and its palaces sculptures' motifs and whatever I used to know about the big name old masters the most influential of them in Vienna must be Luca Giordano's The Fall of the Rebel Angels, whenever I saw its impressive replicated Laocoon-like convulsion-wriggled figures conveying the ideals of Counter-Reformation to the empire subjects on the city streets. Just walking the city you can recognize in the city sculptures' many familiar motifs, not only Biblical but antique as well (Hercules lifting Antaeus, Amazons, etc). Practicalities of the museum visit: the air-conditioning wasn't felt at all in the big inner rooms with Roman numerals, I slightly felt it in the small outer rooms with Arabic numerals (as of 14th and 15th of July). Six or seven rooms were entirely closed for reconstruction during my two-day visit. For lockers you need either a 1 or 2 euro coin, but there's a manned storage facility as well. Backpacks have to be left in a locker, normal shoulder bags are OK. Photo of the permanent exhibition without a flash is allowed. Temporary exhibition: Yan van Eyck "Als Ich Can". Probably I somehow unfortunately missed it. In the room dedicated to the special exhibition (0.5 floor, the same floor as the Kunstkammer, Egyptian and Antique collections - beware indeed almost no English translations of the exhibits, an audio guide cannot make up for all of them; the Egyptian rooms maintain specific humidity level) I saw only few works by the painter, and few works by his contemporaries like Rogier van der Weyden. The museum building (as well as the whole square) is a stunning art object in its own right, specifically built to showcase the Habsburg art treasuries, its highlights are covered by audio guide, including Klimt, Munkacsy contributions. Seeing the interiors I couldn't help but felt as the Mask film protagonist having to recover my awestruck jaw from the floor. Really a mind-boggling shrine of a high art which symbols and messages are probably half-obscure nowadays.
5. Haus der Natur
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 961 reviews
Reviewed By J3919TFstevew
this museum was very interesting looking at all the stuffed animals there was so much to see and look around we had a great time
6. Heinrich Harrer Museum
7. Haydn-Haus Eisenstadt
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 60 reviews
8. Landeszeughaus
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 378 reviews
The world's largest preserved historical armoury displays some 32,000 objects from the 15th to 18th century.
Reviewed By Peaplant - Galway, Ireland
We came in winter when access is by guided tour only. Luckily we happened to be there just in time for one. It was fantastic. Photos can't do the armoury justice. There is so much to be said about being there amounts the pieces, the smells of oils used to clean them. Amazing. Our guide was fantastic and very patient as we all tried on select samples of chain mail and wielded some replica swords. A must for anyone visiting Graz.
9. Minimundus
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 836 reviews
Reviewed By rossa2303 - Klagenfurt, Austria
Great place for reremember history, geography and to see how great and marvelous structures and buildings human hands can make! ????♀️????♂️????♂️????♀️ Kids eyojed a lot! ???????????????? Some where beside visual sights there are also sound effects! Well marked signposts???? A lot places to rest.???? There is restorant, coffe and icecream place. Clean toilettes, with desinfection spray.???????? Tickets prices are solid. 2 adoults 2 kids = 40eur
10. Schlossmuseum Linz
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 198 reviews
Das Schlossmuseum und seine Dauerausstellungen vermitteln auf über 10.000 m2 einen Gang durch die Natur- und Kulturgeschichte Oberösterreichs: vom Beginn des Lebens in Oberösterreich vor ca. 250 Millionen Jahren über die Anfänge menschlicher Besiedlung bis zum 20. Jahrhundert. Sonderausstellungen ergänzen zu den Dauerausstellungen diesen Oberösterreich-Schwerpunkt um aktuelle internationale und regionale Themen.
