The heart of the collections was once around 30,000 objects bought by Emperor Franz I Stephan of Lorraine. He acquired it in 1750 from the Florentine Johann Ritter von Baillou – the largest collection of natural objects at the time.
The collection is growing steadily. Soon the Hofburg was no longer enough to accommodate the exhibits. In the course of building the Ringstrasse, Franz Joseph I decided to provide space for two museums – the natural history and the art history.
The building extends across from the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien between Museumsplatz and Burgring. This area was designed as an imposing imperial forum, which was not realized in this form due to the end of the monarchy in 1918.
Departments of the Natural History Museum: Anthropological Department, Archive for the History of Science, Botanical Department, Geological-Paleontological Department, Department for Karst and Speleology, Mineralogy, Ecology, Zoology and many more
NATURHISTORICAL MUSEUM VIENNA | look at