With its unique collection of top-class works of art and historical exhibits, the Wien Museum offers insights into the city's history in its main building on Karlsplatz. The Stadtmuseum was built by Oswald Haerdtl in the 1950s. After extensive renovation and expansion (designed by Certov, Winkler+Ruck Architekten), it was reopened on December 6, 2023.
The permanent exhibition "Vienna. My History" is a chronological tour that tells the story of the city from the first settlement to the present day. Across three floors, visitors can see highlights of the collection such as the five-metre-high model of St. Stephen's, Gustav Klimt's famous portrait of Emilie Flöge or the museum mascot Poldi, the ten-metre-long Prater whale. Admission to "Vienna. My History" is free.
Other attractions include the special exhibitions on the upper floor, numerous programs for all age groups in the studios and in the event center, a restaurant and café. This leads onto a freely accessible terrace with a spectacular view of Vienna's city center.
Werner Feiersinger, Karlskirche © Werner Feiersinger
Special exhibition Fischer von Erlach
St. Charles Church is considered the most important Baroque building in Austria and is a landmark of Vienna. Its architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach (1656- 1723) is the focus of the first special exhibition in the newly opened Wien Museum. Almost 70 years after the last major comprehensive exhibition, it is time to take a fresh look at Fischer's highly unusual buildings and designs from today's perspective and place them in a contemporary artistic context with the design by Werner Feiersinger.
National Library © Martin Feiersinger
The exhibition was created in cooperation with the Salzburg Museum. In nine chapters, it spans an arc from Fischer's beginnings in Rome through his early buildings in Vienna and Salzburg to his late major works, culminating in the Karlskirche. A large number of objects - drawings, prints, models, paintings, sculptures and books - some of which have never been exhibited before, illustrate an artistic oeuvre that is extraordinary even by the standards of the Baroque period. The focus is on the drawings by the artist himself from the National and University Library in Zagreb and the Albertina in Vienna, as well as the impressive copperplate engravings of historical architecture, which form the center of the exhibition. The photographs by Werner Feiersinger show Fischer's buildings from new, sometimes unexpected angles and thus trace the architect's artistic intentions.
February 1 to April 28, 2024
www.wienmuseum.at
