Naturhistorisches Museum
Naturhistorisches Museum features on the Gingerguide audio walk through Vienna. Give it roughly ~90 min: enough to look, hear a two to three minute story on the spot, and ask the AI guide whatever the story leaves open.
- Type museum
- Suggested visit ~90 min
- Vienna Vienna guide
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About Naturhistorisches Museum
Twin to the art museum opposite, this natural-history palace opened first, in 1889. Its 30 million specimens include the ice-age Venus of Willendorf figurine.
The Naturhistorisches Museum shares its design with the Kunsthistorisches Museum opposite, both raised on Maria-Theresien-Platz to plans by Gottfried Semper and Karl von Hasenauer. Despite being identical twins, they did not open together: the natural-history museum admitted the public first, in 1889, two years ahead of its counterpart. Its holdings, roughly thirty million objects, descend from the Habsburg imperial cabinet of natural curiosities.
The collections range across a large meteorite hall, a dinosaur gallery and historic zoological specimens, but the celebrated exhibit is the Venus of Willendorf. This limestone figurine, about eleven centimetres tall and carved roughly 29,500 years ago, was unearthed in 1908 during railway construction in the Wachau valley of Lower Austria. Once tinted with red ochre and cut from stone foreign to the site, she sits in her own Venus Cabinet, her original meaning unknown.
Did you know? Though built as the identical twin of the Kunsthistorisches Museum across the square, the Naturhistorisches Museum opened to the public first, on 10 August 1889, two years before its art-filled counterpart.
How long is a visit to Naturhistorisches Museum?
Set aside roughly ~90 min for Naturhistorisches Museum. That covers a good look and the narrated story, and because you set the pace you can always stay on.
Is Naturhistorisches Museum worth your time?
Naturhistorisches Museum is among the 35 narrated highlights the Gingerguide team chose for Vienna, so it is worth a look. Hear the story for the context, then ask the AI guide for anything more.
Nearby stops in Vienna
Sources and further reading
Where to check the facts about Naturhistorisches Museum and read more:
Day 1 of the Vienna in 2 days itinerary →Day 2 of the Vienna in 3 days itinerary →
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Hear the story of Naturhistorisches Museum
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