{"id":6213,"date":"2018-10-03T06:00:34","date_gmt":"2018-10-03T05:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/?p=6213"},"modified":"2026-03-10T09:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T08:04:15","slug":"night-of-the-museums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/events\/night-of-the-museums\/","title":{"rendered":"ORF Long Night of Museums"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/belvedere_thumbnail.jpg\" alt=\"Lower Belvedere Entrance\" class=\"wp-image-3352\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/belvedere_thumbnail.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/belvedere_thumbnail-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Dance your way into a host of museums under a silvery moon, starry sky, or dark blanket of night fog (depending on the autumn weather Vienna throws at you) in this annual evening of museum festivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>One ticket for dozens of locations<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Many offer&nbsp;something extra for the evening<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Other activities (like sightseeing tours) may participate<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Museums stay open late<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2026 date: Oct 3<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Book a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiqets.com\/en\/concerts-opera-vienna-tickets-l206741\/?partner=visitingvienna&amp;tq_campaign=LG_AnEvent\" rel=\"sponsored\">classical concert<\/a>* for your trip<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See also:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/events\/night-of-the-churches\/\">Long Night of the Churches<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/october\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"18528\">What to do in October<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/evening\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"71635\">Evening activities in Vienna<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"what-s-it-all-about\">What&#8217;s it all about?<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/lnom.jpg\" alt=\"Banner for the Long Night of Museums\" class=\"wp-image-41919\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/lnom.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/lnom-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Signature banners pop up at participating institutions)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ORF Long Night of Museums (German: <em>ORF Lange Nacht der Museen<\/em>) is <del>when all the exhibits come alive and <\/del> (sorry, obvious joke).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No, it&#8217;s one day of the year when a huge number of museums and similar institutions open late, and a single ticket gets you into as many of them as you want to visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is more than just a cheap and cheerful way to see a few exhibits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, just about every museum you&#8217;ve heard of (and many you haven&#8217;t) participates, so the choice is huge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Second, the museums tend to put on special tours or events just for the occasion. So you might watch restoration work at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/imperial-furniture-collection\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"910\">Furniture Museum<\/a> or join an Indonesian dance workshop at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/khm\/weltmuseum\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"9264\">Weltmuseum<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/nationallibraryjosefsplatz.jpg\" alt=\"The National Library's Josefsplatz entrance\" class=\"wp-image-48428\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/nationallibraryjosefsplatz.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/nationallibraryjosefsplatz-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/winter-palace\/prunksaal\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"2750\">baroque state hall<\/a> of the National Library regularly participates)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Third, thousands of people (typically around 150,000, depending on the weather) create a lovely atmosphere as they mill about the streets late at night, soaking up science, art, culture, history, and anything you might find in a glass cabinet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One year, for example, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/albertina\/\">Albertina<\/a> displayed Albrecht D\u00fcrer&#8217;s famous <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/durer-hare\/\">Young Hare<\/a> watercolour for the evening;  it otherwise only appears every few years or so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The queue was huge, but nobody lost their patience. And a sponsor fed us snacks while we waited. The finest art and chocolate: what more do you need?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The whole thing is a nationwide event organised by ORF, which is Austria&#8217;s state media company (similar to the UK&#8217;s BBC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Obviously, most of the special tours and events are in German, but not all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the 2025 edition, for example, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/khm\/overview\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"1446\">Kunsthistorisches Museum<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/winter-palace\/prunksaal\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"2750\">National Library<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/leopold-museum\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"4014\">Leopold Museum<\/a> explicitly offered English-language guided tours as part of their contribution to the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2022-dates\">2026 dates and highlights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The event has always been on the first Saturday of October, which means October 3rd in 2026. The previous &#8220;night&#8221; ran from 6pm to midnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ORF kindly posts a <a href=\"https:\/\/langenacht.orf.at\/\">website<\/a> which has all the details of timings, locations, activities and similar as they emerge. An overview of participating museums in Vienna is normally available in English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our schedule one year, for example, included a talk on Viennese coffee culture at the coffee museum, the treasury at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/deutschordenshaus\/\">Deutschordenshaus<\/a>, a Hieronymus Bosch exhibition, a crash course in Esperanto at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/esperanto-museum\/\">Esperanto Museum<\/a>, and lifting a bar of gold at the Museum of Money at the National Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At another event, we enjoyed an evening tour of the Stadtpalais Liechtenstein: the baroque town house of the Princes of Liechtenstein, which the current prince had just restored completely for around \u20ac100 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"ticket-visitor-tips\">Ticket &amp; visitor tips<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>One ticket is all you need. A standard adult ticket cost \u20ac19 last time out with concessions available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The following info applied at the previous event:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Tickets were easy to get hold of. On the day itself, you could, for example:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8230;purchase one from the traditional information point on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/maria-theresien-platz\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"47208\">Maria-Theresien-Platz<\/a> (between the Naturhistorisches and Kunsthistorisches museums)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8230;or buy one from any participating museum<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Your ticket was valid for the hours of the event, during which time you could also use it as a pass for the special shuttle buses that operated\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The ticket also counted as a network travel pass for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/transport\/public\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"310\">public transport<\/a> in Vienna from 5.30pm on the day to 12.30am the following day<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You could find other included travel experiences, such as a ride on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/transport\/sightseeing-bus\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"3789\">a sightseeing bus<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The night &#8220;only&#8221; lasts a few hours, so use the ORF site to plan your schedule carefully. With tens of thousands of people participating, queues can develop for the more popular locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My tip: use the early evening to explore some of the less well-known museums and leave the heavyweights until late, when crowds have begun to thin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, if you need help finding your way to places that fit your interests, here&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sightseeing\/vienna-museums\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"1682\">my museum guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dance your way into a host of museums under a silvery moon, starry sky, or dark blanket of night fog (depending on the autumn weather Vienna throws at you) in this annual evening of museum festivities. What&#8217;s it all about? (Signature banners pop up at participating institutions) The ORF Long Night of Museums (German: ORF [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6213","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-events","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6213"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89215,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6213\/revisions\/89215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}