Tag Archives: Austria

Jul27

The Vienna art history museum – Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien

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Sunday, 30-June-2024


After adventure and excitement, I finished my quest for the Art History museum in Vienna.

I’m going to be using the term “opulent” a lot in my blog posts about Vienna, I can tell. But really, there’s no better term to use to describe this museum… it was, simply put, opulent. In every sense of the word. I mean, Vienna is already full of beautiful architecture and art everywhere I looked and walked – how could the museum of art history not step that up a few levels?


I walked in, gawked at my surroundings for a few minutes, then tracked down the cafe – it was the early afternoon, after all, and I’d been exploring around the city in the heat of the day for a few hours at that point. I needed some food, quite a bit of water, and a coffee. Thankfully, I found all three without any difficulty, and a short wait in line later I was sitting and staring at the glorious paintings and marble surrounding me.

It was interesting – I mentioned in my “Exploring Vienna” post that I felt a connection to my Grandfather in Cafe Central, since he’d likely gone there at least once with his parents… Well, the Art History museum had a similar feeling for me. It had been founded in 1891, and although I doubt the cafe was quite that old I still felt confident that, at one point or another, my Grandfather had been roughly where I was now. Knowing his own love for the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, probably multiple times.

Seeing the room around me, it helped me understand where he had been coming from in his life. He’d grown up in Vienna, likely seeing the absolute opulence and majesty as the norm. Then, to see Vienna devolve into Nazism and hate so quickly, only to have to flee to England and the United States… It was interesting, trying to set myself into that mindset and to see how that would have affected me.



I kept those thoughts in mind as I finished my meal and traversed the museum.

From Egypt to Rome, into the treasures of the Hapsburgs and onward into stunning paintings and relics from throughout the city’s history. There was one exhibit on The Fugger’s family that I didn’t quite understand, but aside from that the museum was absolutely glorious – a lesson in beauty and regality. I even found a whole segment hidden on the top floor on Cartoons! Though… not cartoons that you or I would recognize as such, instead being massive tapestries depicting specific events and battles of the Hapsburg Dynasty.

I wandered, perused, and enjoyed the grandeur surrounding me. I appreciated the air conditioning, finished my explorations, and braced myself for the heat of the early evening on my walk home.

Jul26

The Secession art gallery

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Sunday, 30-June-2024


Moving on from the St. Charles’s Church, I simply wandered toward the next most interesting looking building – one that looked a little bit like a triumphal arch from a distance, but with an interesting sphere attached to the top, maybe? It actually took me a little bit to navigate my way over to it – the day was getting hot, and the building in my sights was somehow across multiple lanes of traffic, in a strange spot that seemed to vanish every so often.



Suddenly, after getting caught on the wrong side of a pathway, I turned a corner and found myself at the building I’d been searching for. Up close it wasn’t quite an arch, but it did have that vaguely Greco-Roman styling to it that I enjoy. I read the sign, and headed in.

The Secession Art Gallery.

I had high hopes, going into the gallery. A name like that, a building like this, it boded well!



Unfortunately, the gallery inside the museum didn’t quite live up to my hopes. It was a small modern art museum, mainly populated by art that requires a bit more context that I have… I looked for signage to help me understand, but I was unfortunately left a bit flabbergasted throughout. I mean, okay. I totally get that I miss the point of art that requires a Masters to understand, but… they’re painted iPhone cases. Finger-painted iPhone cases. Bro just had spare cases and paint, and probably convinced a museum to pay thousands of tens of thousands of dollars.

Still, I was diligent and explored all galleries and exhibitions on offer. About 30min later, though, I was leaving the blessed air conditioning and venturing forth back into the sweltering Vienna summer.

Jul26

St Charles’s Church – Karlskirche

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Sunday, 30-June-2024


On my first full day in Vienna, I commandeered a scooter and headed toward the art museums.

The day before, when I’d first arrived in Vienna, I’d taken a short walk around the area to get my bearings… and had first gotten a glimpse of the pure baroque opulence that Vienna had on display. Thanks to that initial experience I wasn’t too shellshocked on Sunday’s adventure… but that didn’t mean that I was immune to the palatial surroundings.

I pretty quickly hopped off my scooter so that I could just walk, and exploring the amazing buildings that I found myself surrounded by – the first of which was Kalskirche, or St. Charles’s Church.

I don’t have too much to write about it – as with many churches that I’ve visited, the exploration was fairly straight forward. Walk in the door, google at the marble, granite, and gilding, walk around a few areas, and then move on. All told, I’d estimate that I average about 20min in a church – not that it’s boring or unimpressive, but that it’s… well, there’s not much reason to sit and stare.

I entered, I appreciated, and I continued onward.