The museums in Vienna you should definitely visit

What was once used as a Airbnb apartment set up by the Habsburg’s in which their guests lodged, is now hosting one of the most valuable art collections in the world. Amongst its permanent exhibitions, it’s got some of art’s greatest hits, with over 100 paintings covering the period from Monet to Picasso. French impressionism and post-impressionism is aplenty on its walls, while there are also many Russian avant-garde works.To drop a few names hanging on the walls of the Albertina: Klimt, Matisse, Picasso, Monet, just to name a few. It also has regular note-worthy changing exhibitions.

This museum is for all the passionate modernist art lovers, and especially for those with a particular fondness for modernist artists that have come out of Vienna.

The Leopold Museum has earned its fame and popularity from its large collection of the likes of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. It’s actually the largest number of Schiele’s work you’ll find in one place throughout the world. Besides these two giants, there’s also the Austrian expressionist, Kokoschka, hanging on the walls.

The interior gives you plenty of headspace to relieve your daily stress and simultaneously get a hold of all the thoughts that have been put into the art.

Good to know… the guy that is behind founding this museum was a student of the arts, and an avid art collector back in the 1950s. He bought his first Egon Schiele for peanuts.

This good looking museum is a fascinating one that’s dedicated to craftsmanship, design and art forms that we all can find in our day to day lives. This means its rooms showcase anything from Oriental statues to unusual chairs.

Each floor of this beautiful building hosts a different style, including Renaissance, Baroque, Orientalism, Historicism, Empire, Art Deco and the distinctive work of the Wiener Werkstätte.

The MAK is also a frequent host of some of the most refreshing and unique exhibitions in the city. Cutting-edge contemporary artists are regularly stepping into the spotlight here.

We’d recommend… spending some quality time in the 20th century design and architecture room.

Besides being a masterpiece of a building on its own, the Kunsthistorisches Museum holds some of the most impressive artworks produced in history. The museum is so huge, you can literally get lost in the art, and the buildng. It’s packed with Europe’s finest painters, sculptors and artisans, with it’s collections spanning from Classical Rome, to Egypt and the Renaissance. If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by the vastness of the art hanging on the walls here, or you’ve only got a limited amount of time to take it all in, just be sure to not miss the old masters in the Gemäldegalerie (Picture Gallery) in which you’ll catch the classic like Bruegel (including the Elder’s Tower of Babel), Raphael, and Velázquez.

The Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (The military museum) is a true treasure for anyone interested in history, especially (and obviously) military history. This is pretty much the only museum in Vienna in which you can learn something about Austrian history. Plus, it’s housed in an impressive neo-Byzantine barracks and munitions depot.

It’s got two floors to it, with exhibitions spanning from the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48) to World War Two, including the Hungarian Uprising, the Austro-Prussian War (ending in 1866), the Napoleonic and Turkish Wars, and World War Two.

By learning about the wars that have touched Austria over it’s long history, you’ll start to understand the make up of the country, and its people, in a whole different way.

The Technisches Museum (Technical Museum) is the real deal for science, tech, and engineering nerds, or simply anybody who likes learning random facts about the creations of human innovation. The exhibition area spans over 22 000 m², with a lot of hands-on gadgets to interact with.