Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History)
The Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History, also referred as Museum of Fine Arts) is one of the finest museums of fine arts and decorative arts in Europe. It is located close to the Hofburg Imperial Palace in the city centre of Vienna. The museum displaying primarily art collections of the Habsburg dynasty is an artwork itself and one of the top tourist attractions in Vienna visited by over one half of million people in year 2007 alone.
The Kunsthistorisches Museum was built between 1872 and 1891 when it was opened by Emperor Franz Joseph I. The building topped with 60 meters (197 feet) high dome is identical to the one housing the Naturhistorisches Museum (Museum of Natural History) situated across Maria-Theresien-Platz facing the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Both buildings were commissioned by Emperor Franz Joseph I to house the Habsburgs’ art collection and to open it to the public. Both museums built of sandstone were designed by Gottfried Semper and Karl Freiherr von Hasenauer.
Lavishly decorated interior houses mostly art collections of the Habsburgs, in first place portrait and armor collections of Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria, the collections of Emperor Rudolph II and Archduke Leopold Wilhelm’s collection of paintings created by some of the greatest artists of all times including Peter Paul von Rubens, Raphael, Caravaggio, Jan van Eyck, Albrecht Dürer, Pieter Bruegel the Elder and many others. The collections of the Kunsthistorisches museum also include Collection of Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities, and Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection.