Tag Archives: museum

Albertina

Visit Albertina

In Vienna are located one of the best galleries and museums in Europe! Here you can find rich cultural calendar with expositions of worldwide famous artists. Modern and contemporary artists and well known classic masters – every location has it’s very own mix of art exposing. One of the most significant and preferable art locations in town is Albertina. The beautiful building located in 1st district is home of beautiful resident collection and guest exhibitions.

Keith Haring exhibition

It’s worthy to go in Albertina till 24.06 to visit the exhibition of modern artist Keith Haring. He was friend with Andy Warhol, Grace Jones and many other important figures of the contra culture in USA in the 70/80s. Keith Haring is an artist with very well recognisable style and lot of energy – he loved to use every single possible place to draw on. New York subway, night clubs and graffiti walls were often his canvas. The current exhibition „Keith Haring , The Alphabet“ follows the most important symbols and characters in his oeuvre in the years. The war in Vietnam, the American dream, the rising influence of mass media among masses. All of these topics you can find coded in Haring’s symbolistic figures of barking dog, red monkey and phallic shapes. One of the most iconic American images as Statue of Liberty, Mickey Mouse and Dollar sign $ are interpreted with controversial and meaning. All important messages that the artist is showing us, are blooming into vivid colours and hilarious scents.

Additional information

There are some another current exhibitions in Albertina. „Monet to Picasso“ is  nice and short revue of these two masters. Another highlight is the photographic exhibition  „Director’s choice“. Part of the historical heritage of Albertina are the State rooms. They are showing typical Austro-Hungarian empire style of interior.

The regular entrance ticket price is 12,90 Euro. Albertina is easy accessible by U-Bahn – U1, U2, U4 (station: Karlsplatz/Oper), U3 (station: Stephansplatz).

A Special German Class – Our Visit in the Parliament

Two weeks ago on Thursday we had a day off because a religious holiday, Corpus Christi. It was up to us to decide whether we want to have an extra class on a Friday or just do something special together. We chose to visit the Parliament House on the Ring and we didn’t regret it.

First, a few words about the Austrian political system:
Austria is a democratic republic. It has 9 counties (one is Vienna) and people have the right to vote from the age of 16. Vienna is the capital so the ministries, the Parliament and a lot of important authorities are here. There are 183 representatives who are discussing the law. They belong to 5 main parties: the SPÖ, ÖVP, FPÖ, Neos and Die Grünen. The president choses the ministers, the chancellor and the secretary of the state.

Since December 2016 the president is Alexander Van Der Bellen who is the first green president ever in Austria. The elections didn’t go smooth though. Van Der Bellen won in May but the votes were counted too early so they had to repeat it in December – and he won again.

The building of the Parliament was completed in 1883 and has a Greek Revival style designed by Theophil Hansen. In front of it there is a statue of Pallas Athene, the Greek goddess of wisdom and knowledge. In the tympanum we can see Emperor Franz Joseph wearing a Roman toga.  The interior has the Greek style, too, with the statues, the columns, and the paintings. The doorknobs and the stairs are decorated with snakes, it means wisdom.

The guided tour through the building took about an hour and it was very interesting. We saw where the politicians are working, speeches are held and laws are made. It was in German but our guide tried to speak a little slower – it helped a lot. If you want to schedule a visit, hurry up, in the middle of July they will close, due to renovations, and will only reopen in 2020. Till then, they move to the Hofburg.

How I Fell in Love With A… Library!

What comes to your mind when you hear the word „library“? I, personally, instantly think of a bunch of students, who are consuming liters of coffee, stressing about their deadlines, and spending days living as hermits somewhere between library shelves. What if I told you that a library can be a breathtaking and inspirational place?

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek

Yes, like this. Pretty amazing, huh? Welcome to the State Hall of the Austrian National Library – the home for more than 200,000 books, the oldest of which date to around 16th century! Located in Hofburg Palace, this library/museum is open for the public eyes all year long. In the same building of Hofburg you can find the Literature museum, the Papyrus museum and the Globe museum.

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek

Obviously visitors can’t touch any of the objects inside, but the good news is: you are allowed to take pictures, so make sure to capture this gorgeous interior in your memories and on your cameras!

Austrian National Library – State Hall

P.S. This Sunday (February 19th) the Library and all museums will be free of charge, here’s the link to the event. You don’t wanna miss this!

My Favorite Museums in Vienna

Vienna is undoubtedly a paradise for those who are, like me, addicted to museums (one more reason why I love this city!). There is SO much to see museums-wise here, and I’m trying to be really careful and not go overboard with visiting all of them, because I want to save some of museums for my next semester here 🙂 So far there hasn’t been any single museum here which I didn’t like, yet some of them I found exceptional and they really stood out for me. So, here’s my personal Top-3 of Viennese museums. Hope some of you feel the same way about them!

Naturhistorisches Museum

Located at the Maria-Theresien-Platz, this enormous museum holds a unique collection of objects and artifacts related to the natural history. You can find anything from meteorites, minerals, precious stones to dinosaur skeletons here. This museum is home to more than 30 million objects! Fascinating, right?

Besides its huge and impressive collection, the Natural History Museum is simply beautiful on the outside and inside. Wandering through the museum, you feel yourself like in a palace; I didn’t know what I was supposed to concentrate on: objects behind the glass or all this beautiful architecture and paintings.

Recommended to: anyone, really! So far I haven’t me any single person who didn’t like this fantastic museum. Even you aren’t into museums very much, I can guarantee that this one will make you want to come back, so interesting it is.

MUMOK – Museum Moderner Kunst


Let’s be completely honest here, not everyone likes modern art. I am, apparently, a big fan of it, and I never miss a chance to visit a modern art museum. MUMOK was the first museum that I visited here in Vienna and it’s safe to say I loved it: I have returned back two times more ever since. MUMOK holds a pretty impressive collection, featuring such famous artists like Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst and many others. There are also various temporary exhibitions going on all the time, and on top of all that, you can go to the cinema here.

One of the features of MUMOK is that it really stands out among all the other buildings in the MuseumsQuartier. And not only it is fabulous on the outside, it’s very interesting inside too, I’m totally fascinated by its design.

Recommended to: everyone, who is into modern art / is open-minded when it comes to art and knows how to appreciate the variety of it / wants to explore something new and non-traditional, or simply to anyone who wants to buy all the small, cute and unnecessary things in this world (I’m referring to the shop in MUMOK now, it’s amazing!)

Kunst Haus Wien. Museum Hundertwasser

Kunst Haus Wien is the home to the biggest and the only one permanent collection of works by Friedensreich Hundertwasser in the world. You have probably heard about this artist and architect before – he designed the famous Hundertwasser House here in Vienna. Kunst Haus Wien is a unique building too, and definitely worth at least looking at it outside. However, I really recommend you to find some time to see the museum inside and take a look at the collection. I was personally astonished by Hundertwasser’s works, their techniques and individuality, his philosophy, principles and life journey. Tip: plan your visit in the evening (the museum works until 18:00), because there are much less visitors at that time. I find this museum especially magnetizing when it’s quiet around and you are left alone with Hundertwasser’s works, free to interpret and ponder them as much as you like.

Unfortunately, it is not allowed to take pictures in the museum, so all I have is this ticket, which reminds me of that wonderful evening together with some of the greatest art I’ve ever seen in my life.

Recommended to: all of you who were fascinated by the Hundertwasser Haus, and to everyone who wants to learn more about Austrian art world.