Museum Landscape & Festivals

Austria's museum landscape is extraordinarily dense for a country of this size:

Vienna

• Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM) — one of the largest art collections in the world. Bruegel (the world's best collection!), Vermeer, Caravaggio, Velázquez, Titian, Rubens. The rooms alone — the emperors had taste — are an experience
• Albertina — Dürer's "Young Hare", Klimt, Monet, Picasso. One of the largest graphic collections worldwide, plus changing blockbuster exhibitions
• Belvedere — Klimt's "The Kiss" and the best collection of Austrian art from the Middle Ages to today, in the baroque palace of Prince Eugene
• MuseumsQuartier — Leopold Museum (Schiele, Klimt), mumok (Museum of Modern Art), Kunsthalle Wien. Plus cafés, courtyards, and Vienna's most creative atmosphere
• Natural History Museum — the Venus of Willendorf (29,500 years old!), dinosaurs, gemstone collection, and a planetarium-like digital planetarium

Outside Vienna

• Ars Electronica Center (Linz) — the world's leading museum for media art, technology, and visions of the future
• Museum of Modern Art (Salzburg, Mönchsberg) — contemporary art with panoramic views over the old town
• Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinandeum (Innsbruck) — from prehistory to Gothic, outstanding collection
• Admont Abbey (Styria) — the largest monastic library in the world, a baroque marvel

Festivals

Austria is the land of festivals — of world-class:

• Salzburg Festival (July/August) — founded in 1920, the most prestigious music festival in the world. Opera, concerts, drama (the "Jedermann" on the Cathedral Square!). Tickets are sought after and expensive (€50–450), but there are remaining tickets on the day of the event
• Bregenz Festival (July/August) — the legendary Seebühne on Lake Constance, the largest open-air stage in the world. The stage designs (a giant eye for Tosca, a Chinese dragon for Turandot) are spectacular
• Vienna Festival Weeks (May/June) — theater, music, performance. Avant-garde and tradition, international and local
• Schubertiade (Hohenems/Schwarzenberg, Vorarlberg) — the world's most important festival for song and chamber music
• Styriarte (Graz) — Nikolaus Harnoncourt founded this festival, focusing on early music and baroque