MuseumsQuartier Wien: A Baroque Imperial Stable Converted Into One of the World’s Largest Museum Districts

The MuseumsQuartier occupies the former imperial stables of Emperor Charles VI, a Baroque complex commissioned in the early 18th century to house 600 horses and their associated equipment. The horses are gone; the stables now contain contemporary art museums, a children’s museum, architecture galleries, a dance centre, and courtyards that function as the social hub of central Vienna’s cultural life from May through September.

The contrast between the original Baroque facade on the Ringstrasse side and the contemporary white limestone and dark basalt additions inside the compound is deliberate. The architects Fischer von Erlach designed the original in the 1700s; the new buildings were added in 2001. Neither style tries to accommodate the other. The combination covers about 60,000 square metres and contains twenty-plus institutions.

The Main Museums

MUMOK (Museum of Modern Art): The darkest building in the compound, clad in basalt lava, houses a solid collection of international modern and contemporary art. Viennese Actionism (a radical performance-based art movement from the 1960s that remains disturbing), Pop Art, and Conceptual Art form the core. The permanent collection is strong; temporary exhibitions cycle frequently. Entry around 16 euros.

Leopold Museum: The white cube building holds the world’s largest Egon Schiele collection – 41 Schiele paintings and hundreds of drawings – alongside significant Klimt and other Viennese Secession works. Schiele died in October 1918 at 28 years old, three days after his pregnant wife, both killed by the Spanish flu epidemic. The concentrated late-career work in this collection is extraordinary. Entry around 15 euros.

Kunsthalle Wien: Contemporary art without a permanent collection; the programming is ambitious and sometimes challenging. Check what is showing. Entry around 9 euros.

The Courtyards

The courtyard is the most important thing in the MQ, separate from whatever art you may or may not see. In summer, large curved loungers called Enzis are scattered across the forecourt and people occupy them from mid-morning to late evening: Viennese students, visitors, office workers on lunch breaks. It is one of the most genuinely relaxed public spaces in Europe in warm weather. In winter the courtyards host one of the less commercialised Christmas markets in Vienna.

The Kunsthalle café has outdoor tables facing the main forecourt at prices that are reasonable by Vienna standards.

The Kunsthistorisches Museum

Two minutes’ walk on Maria Theresien Platz, this imperial museum holds one of the greatest Old Masters collections in Europe. The building itself is spectacular: a 19th-century domed palace designed symmetrically with the Naturhistorisches Museum opposite. The permanent collection contains the largest Pieter Bruegel the Elder collection in the world (12 paintings including Hunters in the Snow and The Tower of Babel), major Rembrandt, Raphael, Titian, Velazquez, and Rubens, and an Egyptian antiquities collection that includes artefacts from Tutankhamun’s era. Entry is 21 euros. A serious visit takes at least three hours. The in-house café in the ornate atrium is the right place for coffee.

Getting There and When to Visit

The U2 line stops at MuseumsQuartier directly at the entrance. The U3 stops at Volkstheater, a three-minute walk.

Summer suits the courtyards. October and November suit the museums, with thinner crowds. December suits the quieter Christmas market, attended primarily by Viennese rather than tourists. The joint MUMOK-Leopold ticket available at mqw.at costs less than two separate admissions.