Identical twins
The art museum and the Natural History Museum facing it across Maria-Theresien-Platz are near mirror images, built together to show the empire's art on one side and its science on the other.
Urban Tales › Vienna › Kunsthistorisches Museum
Kunsthistorisches Museum: the history, and the world's biggest Bruegel room
Emperor Franz Joseph built it to put the Habsburgs' art collections on show, opposite an identical twin full of meteorites and dinosaurs. Here's what you're looking at, and what to listen for when you get there.
Opened1891
ArchitectsSemper & Hasenauer
Bruegels12 paintings
TwinNatural History Museum
Hear the Kunsthistorisches Museum story, in the app's voice
A short preview. The full story plays on its own when you walk up to it with Urban Tales.
Three stories most visitors miss
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Klimt on the staircase
Between the columns of the grand staircase, a young Gustav Klimt, his brother Ernst and Franz Matsch painted the spandrels in 1890–91. Klimt's are the women in the Egyptian and Greek panels.
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The Bruegel room
The museum has the world's largest collection of paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, including "The Tower of Babel" and "Hunters in the Snow".
TipClimb the grand staircase and look up between the columns and arches above it: Klimt's panels are there. With Urban Tales running, the museum's story plays as you reach Maria-Theresien-Platz.
Nearby landmarks
Kunsthistorisches Museum: common questions
What is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum?
The Habsburgs' collections: old master paintings, Egyptian and Greek antiquities, the Kunstkammer and coins.
When did the Kunsthistorisches Museum open?
In 1891, built for Emperor Franz Joseph by Gottfried Semper and Karl von Hasenauer.
Can you see Klimt at the Kunsthistorisches Museum?
Yes, Klimt painted panels above the grand staircase in 1890–91.