The Vienna Arsenal is a large complex of former military buildings constructed in response to the political uprisings of 1848-49, located just around the corner from Vienna’s main train station. It was one of the first prestige projects under the reign of Kaiser Franz Joseph I, and the museum at the center of the new complex—the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum or “Military History Museum”—was opened in 1856 as the first-ever public exhibition of its kind.
The museum building is an architectural marvel in itself, with lavish halls, exhibition rooms, and staircases adorned with homages to the great military figures of Austrian history as viewed from its time of construction in the 1850s. The entrance hall is supported by clustered columns flanked by life-size marble statues of Austrian military greats like Radetzky, Haynau, and Windischgrätz, and a large internal pantheon pays tribute to Austrian military heroes.
Halls I-V on the upstairs floors remain so similar to their state at the turn of the last century that more than 100-year-old travel guides to Austria-Hungary from 1913 still contain an accurate description of the layout and exhibits in each hall. Some notable exhibits include Wallenstein’s blood-stained order to Pappenheim, the sword of Tilly, the collar that Gustav Adolf wore on the day he died at Lützen, trophies from the various Habsburg-Ottoman wars, an early French military hot-air balloon, and much more.
The ground-level floors contain more modern exhibits, including, notably, the clothing and automobile of Franz Ferdinand when he was shot in Sarajevo in 1914, as well as exhibits from the First and Second World Wars. However, the highlight of the museum remains its pre-World War I exhibits, which remain frozen and unchanged from a time when Austria and its empire reigned supreme.
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