What Is the Natural History Museum Vienna?

The Natural History Museum Vienna (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, often shortened to NHM) opened on August 10, 1889, as the twin building to the Kunsthistorisches Museum directly across Maria-Theresien-Platz — the same architects, Gottfried Semper and Carl Hasenauer, designed both, and a statue of Empress Maria Theresa sits exactly between them. Where its twin holds the Habsburgs' art collection, the NHM holds their natural-history collection: roughly 30 million objects spread across 39 exhibition rooms and more than 8,460 square meters, with over 100,000 objects on public display at any time.

The single most famous object is the Venus of Willendorf, a 29,500-year-old limestone figurine and one of the most significant prehistoric artifacts found in Europe. The Dinosaur Hall (Hall 10) is the other major draw, anchored by a life-size, moving Allosaurus model. The meteorite collection — billed as the oldest and largest of its kind in the world, with roughly 1,100 specimens on display — rounds out the must-see trio. As of 2026, halls 29 through 32 are closed for renovation work; check the official site before your visit if a specific gallery in that range is the reason for your trip.

Natural History Museum Vienna Tickets & Prices 2026

Admission is priced by age and status rather than by an online-versus-door discount, unlike some other Vienna museums:

• Adults: €18.00
• Reduced (students, seniors — bring ID; the museum sets exact eligibility categories): €14.00
• Children and teens under 19: free
• Annual pass (unlimited admission for 12 months): €44.00

There's no official combined ticket bundling the Natural History Museum with the Kunsthistorisches Museum across the square — the two are separately administered federal museums, so each requires its own admission even though the buildings face each other on the same plaza. Frequent museum-goers can instead look at the Bundesmuseen Card (around €99), which covers repeat entry to a wider set of Austria's federal museums over a year, or check whether the Vienna Pass is worth it if you're stacking several paid sights into one trip.

Vienna City Card holders get a 22% discount on standard admission — worth factoring in if you're already buying the card for public transport. Prices above reflect the museum's own site as of mid-2026; confirm before booking, since ticket prices at Austrian federal museums are typically revised at least once a year.

Opening Hours & Best Time to Go

The Natural History Museum Vienna keeps a genuinely unusual schedule for a major Ring museum: open Thursday through Monday from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, with Wednesday hours extended to 9:00 AM–8:00 PM, and closed entirely on Tuesdays. Last entry is 30 minutes before closing, so plan to be inside by 5:30 PM (7:30 PM on Wednesdays).

That Tuesday closure is the detail to build an itinerary around — several other Vienna sights, including the Kunsthistorisches Museum across the square, stay open every day of the week. If a Tuesday is the only day you have free, the Natural History Museum simply isn't an option and that day is better routed elsewhere.

Wednesday evenings after around 5:00 PM are the quietest single window the museum offers, since the extended hours pull in far fewer visitors than its regular daytime traffic. Weekday mornings right at the 9:00 AM opening are the next-best option, ahead of the mid-morning school-group and tour-bus wave that typically builds by 10:30 AM. July and August are Vienna's peak tourist months; April–May or September–October bring comparable weather with noticeably shorter queues at the entrance.

How Long to Plan for Your Visit

Budget 2 to 3 hours for a reasonable pass through the permanent collection — enough time to see the Venus of Willendorf, work through the Dinosaur Hall, and take in the meteorite collection without rushing. Visitors focused only on the headline objects can move faster, in around 90 minutes.

If English-language rooftop tours are running during your visit (Friday through Sunday at 3:00 PM), add 45–60 minutes and confirm space in advance — the tour looks out over the Ringstrasse and the historic city center from the museum's dome level and is a genuinely different vantage point on Vienna. Anyone pairing this museum with the Kunsthistorisches Museum on the same day should treat it as a full museum day: the two together comfortably fill 5–6 hours.

How to Get to the Natural History Museum Vienna

The museum sits on Maria-Theresien-Platz in Vienna's 1st district, at the western edge of the Ring — the same square as the Kunsthistorisches Museum, with the two buildings facing each other. By U-Bahn, Museumsquartier (U2) is about a five-minute walk, and Volkstheater (U2/U3) is a similarly short walk from the opposite side of the square. Tram lines 1, 2, 71, and D, plus bus 48A, stop nearby along the Ring at Burgring or Dr.-Karl-Renner-Ring.

On foot, it's roughly 5–10 minutes from the Hofburg's Michaelerkuppel entrance, making the two an easy same-walk pairing. A dedicated wheelchair-accessible entrance is available at Burgring 7, with accessible elevators serving all exhibition floors except the rooftop tour. There's no dedicated visitor parking at the museum itself; the nearest public garages sit around the Ring and the Museumsquartier complex, a short walk from the entrance.

Visit Tips: Queues, Booking & Mistakes to Avoid

Check the day of the week before you plan around this museum — the Tuesday closure catches more visitors off guard here than almost any other scheduling detail in central Vienna, since most nearby sights don't share it. Build the museum into a Wednesday, Thursday, or weekend day rather than assuming it follows the same pattern as its neighbors.

Arrive close to opening (9:00 AM) or use the Wednesday evening extension if you want to see the Dinosaur Hall and Venus of Willendorf without a crowd around the display cases — both are the two most-photographed objects in the museum and draw the heaviest foot traffic mid-morning through early afternoon. If you're carrying a Vienna City Card, present it at the ticket counter for the 22% discount rather than assuming it's applied automatically online.

Don't assume a Kunsthistorisches Museum ticket, the Vienna Pass, or any other Ring-museum pass gets you in automatically — the Natural History Museum is administratively separate and sells its own ticket. If halls 29–32 matter to your visit, confirm current renovation status on the official site before you go, since that closure has no fixed reopening date as of mid-2026.

Nearby Attractions

The Natural History Museum sits inside Vienna's densest museum cluster, so it pairs naturally with a short walk rather than a standalone trip. Its twin across the square, the Kunsthistorisches Museum, holds the Habsburgs' art collection and is a near-zero-effort add-on given the two buildings face each other. The Hofburg, the former imperial palace, is a 5–10 minute walk east and anchors the rest of Vienna's Ring-area sightseeing.

For a full palace trip, Schönbrunn Palace sits apart from the city center and is worth planning as its own half-day. For the rest of the city's Vienna attractions, or to slot this museum into a tighter schedule, see our 2 days in Vienna itinerary.