Vienna Photos: Kunsthistorishes Museum, Vienna

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Kunsthistorisches Museum (Art History Museum), Vienna


The Kunsthistorisches Museum is the Museum of Art History in Vienna. It is twinned with the Natural History Museum, which is situated in a building that looks pretty much the same (apart from ornaments and decorations). The Kunsthistorisches Museum was built between 1872 and 1891 and contains what used to be the art collection of various branches of the Habsburg family.

The "Kunsthistorisches" or "KHM" - as it is locally known - holds the fourth-largest collection of fine arts, with a strong focus on Flemish and Italian paintings of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Beyond this focus, the nature and display of the collection shows the personal preferences of some key-collectors among the Habsburgs.

The Kunsthistorisches contains a private, personal collection and you can still see that. The picture above depicts the main building of the Kunsthistorisches; apart from this one, the museum runs several external sections, such as the treasury, the Theatre Museum in Palais Lobkowitz or the Renaissance palace of Schloss Ambras in Tyrol′s capital Innsbruck. The Wagenburg at the Imperial Palace of Schönbrunn is also a division of the Kunsthistorisches. I consider the Kunsthistorisches as a "must see" attraction of Vienna, and even if you have only a slight interest in art, you should think about taking a guided tour.



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