Art History Museum

How to get there: a 10-minute walk from Hotel Appartements Riemergasse,

or take tram No. 1 or 2 to the Burgring stop (10 minutes) 

The Art History Museum, which stands on the side of the Ringstrasse, is located on the Maria Theresien Platz. On this square, Empress Maria Theresia sits enthroned high above her four generals, including Count Daun, who once actually resided at the Appartements Riemergasse! The building is a mirror image of the Natural History Museum directly across the square.

Emperor Franz Joseph's decision to demolish the old city walls in 1857, literally paved the way for construction of the most magnificent boulevard in the entire Danube Monarchy. It is alongside the tree-lined Ringstrasse that we find the Art and Natural History Museums. Both museums are built in a Renaissance style. The two museums, which look absolutely identical from the outside, were constructed by Gottfried Semper and Karl Hasenauer over a twenty-year period beginning in 1871.  The indescribable riches of the Habsburgs, collected over the course of many centuries, had been kept in various buildings throughout Vienna until the opening of the museum in 1891.

Today the Art History Museum houses eight different collections. These encompass Ancient Egypt, Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the modern era until approximately 1800. We owe the various collections to the divergent tastes of Austria's emperors. The most pronounced focus of the collection is, undoubtedly, the breathtaking art of the Renaissance and Baroque.