Kunsthistorisches Museum Tickets Vienna

The Kunsthistorisches Museum on Maria-Theresien-Platz

The Kunsthistorisches Museum, often called the KHM or the Museum of Art History, opened in 1891 on Vienna's Ringstrasse. The architects Gottfried Semper and Karl von Hasenauer designed it to hold the Habsburgs' art collections, and the building itself, with its marble staircase, paintings and gilded domed hall, is part of the attraction. Kunsthistorisches Museum tickets are therefore a top pick for a first visit to Vienna.

It faces the Natural History Museum across Maria-Theresien-Platz, near the Museumsquartier and the Volksgarten, and is easy to reach by U2 or U3 to Volkstheater, or by tram. Opening days and hours change with the season, and the museum and the Treasury have different weekly closing days, so check your date in the booking panel.

The picture gallery: Bruegel, Titian, Raphael and Vermeer

The picture gallery is the museum's core. It holds the world's largest collection of paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, including The Tower of Babel and Hunters in the Snow, together with major works by Titian, Raphael, Rubens, Velázquez, Dürer and Vermeer, whose The Art of Painting is one of the best-known pictures in the building.

There is far more here than one visit can cover, so choose your rooms in advance: many visitors start with the Bruegel room, then the Venetian painters and the Dutch and Flemish galleries. Beyond paintings, the museum also has collections of Egyptian and Near Eastern antiquities and of Greek and Roman art.

The Kunstkammer Vienna

The Kunstkammer, meaning the chamber of art and wonders, is the Habsburgs' collection of precious and curious objects gathered by rulers such as Emperor Rudolf II and Archduke Ferdinand II. It includes ivory carvings, gold and enamel work, clocks, automata and scientific instruments, all displayed in richly decorated rooms.

Its most famous object is the Saliera, Benvenuto Cellini's gold salt cellar from the sixteenth century. Your combined ticket includes the Kunstkammer, so plan about 40 to 60 minutes for it if you like detail, and remember that it is part of the same building as the painting galleries.

The Imperial Treasury in the Hofburg

The Imperial Treasury, known in German as the Schatzkammer, is in the Hofburg, the former imperial palace in the heart of old Vienna. It holds the regalia and jewels of the Habsburgs and of the Holy Roman Empire, including imperial crowns, coronation robes, sacred relics and treasures dating back more than a thousand years.

It is roughly a fifteen-minute walk from the Kunsthistorisches Museum through the Heldenplatz and the Hofburg complex, so many visitors do both in one day: the paintings in the morning, the crowns after lunch. Check the museum's and the Treasury's opening days before choosing your date, because each has its own weekly closing day.