The Vienna World Museum is located in Neue Burg in the Imperial Palace.
It was founded in 1928 as the Museum of Ethnology.
With its top-class cultural treasures from all continents, it is one of the most important ethnographic museums in the world.
The World Museum ticket also entitles you to visit the Court Hunting and Armory Chamber and the Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments.
Exhibitions in the World Museum
With 250,000 ethnographic objects, an important photo collection with around 140,000 photographs and around 146,000 printed objects, the World Museum is the largest ethnographic museum in Austria.
Among the most fascinating cultural treasures are the collection of the navigator James Cook and the unique feather headdress works from the time before the discovery of America, including the last existing feather crown from the time of Montezuma.
The newly designed display collection is presented in 14 display rooms, arranged thematically.
The Halls are Divided into the Following Subject Areas
- Benin and Ethiopia: Art, Power, Resistance
- Culture Clash in Vienna
- An Austrian Mosaic of Brazil
- In the Shadow of Colonialism
- The New Perception - The View of China
- 1873 - Japan Comes to Europe
- Collector Mania. I Suffer from Museum Mania!
- South Seas: Encounters with the Lost Paradise
- Fascinated by Indonesia
- World in Motion
- Into a New World
- The Orient on Your Doorstep
- Stories from Mesoamerica
- A Village in the Mountains
The museum is also regularly supplemented by changing special exhibitions that examine different topics more intensively. An overview and preview of the changing exhibitions can be found here.
Parts of the World Museum
- Court Hunting and Armory: The collection presents elaborate armor and ceremonial weapons that tell of knightly life and important events at court. The Viennese collection is considered the best-documented courtly armory in the West.
- Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments: This collection contains the world's most important inventory of Baroque and Renaissance instruments. You can also see original instruments by great composers, including Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn.
Admission, Tickets and Prices
- Tickets: The admission ticket for the World Museum also entitles you to visit the Court Hunting and Armory and the Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments. The entrance fee for adults is 12€. Children and young people under the age of 19 enjoy free admission.
- Annual Pass: With the annual pass, you receive an admission pass for unlimited visits to the Vienna Art History Museum, the Vienna Imperial Treasury, the Vienna Imperial Carriages, Ambras Castle Innsbruck, the Vienna World Museum with the Court Hunting and Armory, and the Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments and the Theater Museum with Vienna Academy's Picture Gallery of Visual Arts Vienna for a full year.
You can find an overview of the current ticket prices on the World Museum's website.
- Guided Tours: Interested visitors can learn more about selected topics, special exhibitions or halls as part of a guided tour. You can find an up-to-date overview here.
Museum Cafe
In the museum's stunning portico is Cook Café & Bistro, named after the British navigator James Cook.
Enjoy the grandiose flair and a creative selection of international and Austrian specialties.
The museum café can also be visited without an admission ticket.
History of the World Museum
The Vienna World Museum in the Corps de Logis in Neue Burg was founded on May 25, 1928 as the Museum of Ethnology. The museum has only been called Vienna World Museum since 2013.
However, its origins go back to the early 16th century, when the first ethnographic pieces were collected in Art and Chamber of Curiosities.
In 1806, with the purchase of part of the Cook Collections, a separate Ethnographic Collection was established in the Imperial Court Natural History Cabinet. The collection of navigator James Cook is still one of the highlights of the museum.
In 1876 it was decided that the rapidly growing stocks would be managed by the anthropological-ethnographic department of the Natural History Museum.
Today, the Vienna World Museum, with its most important non-European collections worldwide, is one of the most important ethnographic museums in the world.
Contact
- Address: Heldenplatz, 1010 Vienna, Austria
- Subway: U2 and U3 Volkstheater
- Opening Times: The current opening times can be found on the museum 's homepage .