This venerable institution is undoubtedly up there with the world’s finest collections of Old Master paintings. Highlights include masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance such as Giovanni Bellini Raphael, Titian and Tintoretto, Dutch and Flemish works by Hieronymus Bosch, Rembrandt and Johannes Vermeer van Delft, and German masters Lucas Cranach, Albrecht Dürer and Hans Holbein.

But the Kunsthistorisches Museum is perhaps best known for its unique collection of fourteen works by Pieter Brueghel the Elder—a third of the artists’ known works—and Diego Velázquez’ remarkable child portraits of the Spanish princess (and the later Empress of the Holy Roman Empire) Infanta Margarita.

Located across from Vienna’s Museum of Natural History, the Kunsthistorisches Museum is one of twin buildings designed in the Italian Renaissance style by architects Gottfried Semper and Karl Hasenauer in the late 19th century. Entry to the galleries is via a grand marble staircase with copious trompe l’oeuil effects and murals by Mihaly von Munkácsy, Hans Makart and Gustav Klimt.