Naturhistorisches Museum Wien - Museum of Natural History of Vienna

Visit Vienna and go to museum
The Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (en: Museum of Natural History of Vienna) or NHMW is a large museum located in Vienna, Austria.
In display halls covering 8.700² metres the visitor can travel through our planet’s history, through the breathtaking diversity of nature and back to the origins of our culture.

On the upper ground floor (Hochparterre) can be seen fascinating and valuable precious stones and minerals, rare fossils and gigantic dinosaurs, as well as famous prehistoric works of art. One of the most important is the 25.000 year-old figure of “Venus von Willendorf”, the skeleton of a Diplodocus, the longest terrestrial vertebrate that has ever lived, a giant topaz weighing 117 kg and the valuable bouquet of jewels which Maria Theresia had made as a present for her husband.

The museum building opened in 1889 at the same time as the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The two museums have identical exteriors and face each other across Maria-Theresien-Platz. The Museum was built to house the huge collection of the Habsburgs.

The first floor presents the overwhelming species variety of the animal world, from protozoa to the most highly developed mammals. Objects of more than 200 years old are of great interest, not only on their own account but also as witnesses of nature and historical records for the history of science and the art of taxidermy. Numerous stuffed animals of species either extinct or extremely endangered make the collections truly irreplaceable.