Natural History Museum Vienna

Natural History Museum Vienna

The Natural History Museum Vienna began construction in 1871 and officially opened to the public in 1889. The museum is located on Vienna’s Ringstraße, facing its twin building — the Kunsthistorisches Museum — across the street, with a statue of Empress Maria Theresa situated between them. Its collections mainly originated from the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty and the imperial family, originally housed in the Hofburg and Belvedere Palaces, until they were moved to the current location after 1889.

The permanent exhibition halls of the Natural History Museum occupy two floors, covering an exhibition space of 8,700 square meters, divided into four main sections: the Mineralogy and Petrology Hall, the Earth History and Fossil Hall, the Prehistory Hall, and the Hall of Biological Evolution, totaling 39 exhibition rooms. The exhibits include minerals, meteorites, fossils, skulls, artifacts from the Hallstatt culture, as well as animal and plant specimens, spanning the fields of geology, archaeology, anthropology, zoology, botany, and geography. Among these, the museum houses the world’s largest collection of human skulls.

The Natural History Museum Vienna is one of the top ten natural history museums in the world, with over 25 million items exhibited in rotation across 39 rooms. The layout and arrangement of exhibits have been meticulously designed, guiding visitors from minerals to the origins of life on Earth, through the Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic eras, and into prehistoric civilizations. With the evolution of animals as the main theme of the second-floor exhibition area, the museum allows visitors to gradually understand the planet we live on, the role of humans within nature, and the interaction between civilization and the environment.

Naturhistorisches Museum

Must-visit reason: One of the most important natural history museums in the world

Continent where the attraction is located: Europe

Country/Region where the attraction is located: Austria

Province/State where the attraction is located: Vienna

City where the attraction is located: Vienna