vienna

The ceremonial room, the heart of the Austrian National Library, is one of the most beautiful library halls in the world. It is the biggest Baroque library in Europe. The former Court Library was created in the first half of the 18th century as a private wing of the Hofburg imperial residence. Emperor Karl-VI ordered its construction. The library was built by Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach according to plans of his father, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. More than 200000 volumes are exhibited here, among them the comprehensive library of Prince Eugene of Savoy as well as one of the largest collections of Martin Luther’s writings from the Reformation Era. Among the exhibits are two exquisite Venetian baroque globes one for the earth and one for the sky, each with a diameter of more than one meter.
 

MUSA hosting the collection of the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna presents contemporary Austrian art with free admission. With its approximately 30000 objects by about 4500 artists, the museum provides a historic cross section of Viennese art since 1945. Within changing exhibitions, the collection is shown in the museum with 600 sq mts. The integrated Start Gallery enables young artists to enter the art market. The museum is located almost in the Centre of Vienna, between the Town Hall and the University. In the exhibition mainly contemporary art and photography and the Museum is small but quite interesting.
 

The Kunsthalle Wien in the Museums Quartier near the Imperial Palace focuses on presentations of contemporary and modern art. It is a place for the full variety of international contemporary art and applied contemporary discourses. For this, it develops innovative exhibition and communication formats. The educational program is based on different levels of ways to approach presenting, facilitates an overlap of artistic practice and its theoretical reflection and promotes an intensive discourse on topical issues of everyday life. The Kunsthalle Wien Museums Quartier is worth a visit not only for the organized events. The former Baroque winter riding hall is getting a functional annex designed by the architecture office of Ortner, which combines the historical structure with contemporary architecture. 
 

The Theatre Museum brings together collections on all topics of the performing arts and is one of the biggest and most important documentation centres of its kind in the world. Objects of contemporary Austrian and international stage art from spoken and musical theatre via dance and film to figure and Puppet Theatre are kept in the archives and scientifically researched, published and presented in exhibitions. The museum evolved from the Theatre Collection of the Austrian National Library, whose origins go as far back as the Baroque era. A separate department of the museum is devoted to children where they are introduced to the stage world in a playful way. The Theatre Museum also houses a grand concert hall, the Eroica Hall called after Beethoven's Third Symphony, dedicated to the composer's patron and owner of the palace, Franz Joseph Maximilian Prince Lobkowitz.
 

The Museum of the Johann Strauss Dynasty is the first museum in the world to present the family history and creative works of the entire Strauss family. Waltz king Johann Strauss, as well as his eponymous father and his brothers Josef and Eduard, conquered the world back then with their music. Even today, their more than 1500 works represent Viennese music like no others. In 2017, a special exhibition focuses on the 150th anniversary of the waltz On the Blue Danube. The music of the Strausses has lost none of its fascination down the years. Their waltz and operetta melodies resound in concert houses and at the traditional New Year's concert, which is broadcast to the whole world from Golden Hall of the Musikverein. In the Museum of the Johann Strauss Dynasty, which was opened in 2015, music lovers will find an opulent wealth of original historic pictures and documents from the period of the Viennese Biedermeyer to the Ringstrasse era of the late 19th century.
 

The former apartment and practice of Sigmund Freud are now furnished as a museum. The Sigmund Freud Museum shows original furniture, including the waiting room and a selection from Freud's private collection of antiques, autographs and first editions of his works. It provides an insight into Freud's biography, his cultural surroundings and the emergence of psychoanalysis. Visitors will also see historic films from the private life of Freud and his family, compiled and commented by Anna Freud. The museum has been gradually expanded since it was opened, gaining a library, a museum shop, storage rooms for the library and a lecture room. The storefront's large windows provide an imposing exhibition area for installations by artists from Austria and abroad.