The Wien Museum is dedicated to the city’s history and culture dating from the earliest settlements through to the present day. The museum’s lively roster of changing exhibitions offers unusual insights into metropolitan life, often focusing on popular culture and the everyday.

Located directly on Karlsplatz, the main building houses an impressive permanent exhibition focusing on fin-de-siécle Vienna. Collection highlights include Gustav Klimt’s portrait of his life-long companion Emilie Flöge, as well as works by Egon Schiele, Richard Gerstl and the Wiener Werkstätte. Be sure to visit the reconstructed sitting room of the master of modernism, Adolf Loos.

The Wien Museum maintains several museum branches located across the city, with venues ranging from the formidable Hermesvilla (the former residence of Empress Elisabeth) to the Uhrenmuseum, the city’s impressive collection of historical clocks. The Wien Museum also sponsors a dense network of original apartments once owned by great composers such as Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven.