Der Prunksaal der Ӧsterreichischen Nationalbibliothek, the State Hall of the Austrian National Library, is fascinating. Constructed in the early 1700s, it contains around 200,000 books published between 1500 to 1850, four large antique globes, and over a dozen statutes.
The State Hall is definitely worth a 20 minute visit, even though it is a bit pricey at €8 each just to walk into a large room.
Afterwards we strolled over to Café Central, an old café in a fancy building that is a must for tourists. It is one of those places that everyone raves about for reasons I do not understand. Vienna has lots of cafés and even more fancy buildings. Combining the two does not make for a better experience, just a more expensive one.
Stephanie opted for a small coke, I got a Vienna iced coffee (think coke float, but with cold coffee instead), and we split a piece of cake.
Our mid-day sugar trip cost €18. In other words, the equivalent of about 30 cans of Landgraf Märzen. We need to revisit priorities.
At least the slow service meant we had plenty of time to cool off.
There are a lot of art museums in Vienna. A lot. Even though we went to Albertina and KHM, Stephanie had to go to the Belvedere, too. There are three Belvedere museums, the Upper Belvedere, Lower Belvedere, and Belvedere 21.
Two baroque palaces, creatively named the Upper Belvedere and Lower Belvedere, were built in the early-1700s. The Upper Belvedere was converted into a museum in the late-1700s, one of the earliest museums in the world. It is also where the Austrian State Treaty of 1955 was signed, restoring Austria as a sovereign state after World War II. Lower Belvedere became a museum in the early-1900s.
The two palaces collectively serve as the Austrian National Galleries. Paintings by Gustav Klimt are the clear highlight of the Upper Belvedere. A temporary exhibition of paintings by Georg Eisler is particularly enjoyable as well.
Because the permanent collection in the Lower Belvedere focuses on art from the Middle Ages (not our favorite), we skipped it. Likewise, we passed on Belvedere 21, the contemporary art museum located in a modern building a few blocks away.
If you like museums, you will love Vienna. Here is a short, non-exclusive list of some of the museums that we skipped:
Papyrus Museum; Literature Museum; Globe and Esperanto Museum; Ephesos Museum; Museum of Austrian History; Museum of Natural History; Museum Judenplatz; Peace Museum; Dom Musuem; Museum im Schottenstift; Albertina Modern; Lower Belvedere; Belvedere 21; Architectural Museum; Leopold Museum; Kunsthalle; Mumok; Museum Mozart; Sigmund Freud Museum; and, the Imperial Furniture Museum.
Whew.
We saved the best for last, Kaiserliche Schatzkammer Wien, the Imperial Treasury Museum. Sure, there are a lot of religious artifacts and clothing on display, but also crowns, ceremonial swords, scepters, paintings, and the world’s largest cut emerald (2,680 carats).
Highlights include the Habsburg Imperial Crown, vestments and collar of the Order of Golden Fleece, the emerald, and various alleged Christian relics, including a nail that supposedly held Jesus to the cross.
There is also an agate bowl that is reputed to be the Holy Grail (though the folks in Valencia may beg to differ).
Many of the display cases are quite small. One family of four surrounded the display case of the Habsburg Imperial Crown. They just stood there for an eternity listening to the audio guide. Hello? There are other people here. You shouldn’t block off a display just to listen to the complete audio guide. Look and then move away to a respectful distance. (see FN 1.)
As it turned out, the Imperial Treasury Museum was my favorite museum in Vienna.
We could have stayed in Vienna for months and still not seen everything the city has to offer. But it is time to move on. There is more to see in Austria.
Garrett and Stephanie
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1. Stephanie said that this paragraph makes me sound like a grumpy old man. Um, yeah.
Looks like Brooks Bros. plagiarized their logo from the collar!! 😊. So happy to see all these treasures since I’ll never get Ken on a transatlantic trip again!
Great posting!! Thanks!
Thanks for the trip through Vienna. Beautiful pictures.
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