{"id":70049,"date":"2024-03-29T08:37:20","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T07:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/?p=70049"},"modified":"2025-12-18T14:03:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T13:03:37","slug":"pratermuseum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/pratermuseum\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pratermuseum"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><a href=\"#tickets\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/pratermuseumtickets.jpg\" alt=\"The Riesenrad in winter\" class=\"wp-image-85584\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Vienna&#8217;s huge Prater recreational area has a long record of entertaining all parts of society with both the bizarre and the banal. The Pratermuseum offers a quick insight into that history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Brief thematic overviews<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Diverse set of exhibits from marriage machines to models<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Run by the Wien Museum<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Limited opening days<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Take a historical <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiqets.com\/en\/vienna-walking-tours-l205287\/?partner=visitingvienna&amp;tq_campaign=LG_Prater\" rel=\"sponsored\">walking tour<\/a>* of Vienna<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See also:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/prater\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"35726\">The Prater: an overview<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sightseeing\/vienna-museums\/wien-museum\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"26812\">Wien Museum locations<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The strange &amp; wonderful<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/pratermuseum2024c.jpg\" alt=\"Model of the 1873 World Fair\" class=\"wp-image-69950\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/pratermuseum2024c.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/pratermuseum2024c-300x200.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 museum&#8217;s model of the World Fair held in the Prater in 1873; press photo: Klaus Pichler, Wien Museum)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Open to the public since 1766, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/prater\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"35726\">the Prater<\/a> seems to claim a special place in the hearts of the Viennese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unlike many of the city&#8217;s famous historical locations, this recreational park full of entertainments both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/prater-park-hiking-trail-9\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"35713\">natural<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/wurstelprater-amusement-park\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"35559\">manufactured<\/a> was a place where all could gather, wherever you stood on the social spectrum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Prater also had (and still has) an other-worldliness to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Off to one side of the old town&#8230;a step apart from the norm and norms; a place full of the esoteric and exciting, the forbidden and the unusual. But also full of woodland and meadows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One-time host to a world fair but also &#8220;the lion man&#8221;. Home to wildlife and walks, but also wild mechanical rides. Futuristic but embedded in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/pratermuseum2024a.jpg\" alt=\"Distant view of the Pratermuseum\" class=\"wp-image-69948\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/pratermuseum2024a.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/pratermuseum2024a-300x200.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\">(Exterior view of the Pratermuseum and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/riesenrad\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"271\">famous neighbour<\/a>; press photo \u00a9 Herta Hurnaus)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A place of contrast and paradox, much like Vienna and the Viennese, perhaps. (Pass the vermouth, I feel a philosophical essay coming on.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All of which explains why the Prater featured so often on canvas and in print and film, some examples of which appear in the Pratermuseum run by the Wien Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This small museum essentially gives you a quick flavour of the Prater&#8217;s history, its sociocultural highs, its unvarnished lows, and its various recreational uses. And all with a slight and loving bias in favour of the Victorianesque entertainments that enabled the earlier Viennese to forget the daily grind.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/pratermuseum2024b.jpg\" alt=\"Panorama picture of the Prater\" class=\"wp-image-69949\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/pratermuseum2024b.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/pratermuseum2024b-300x200.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\">(Enjoy people spotting in the panorama picture; press photo: Klaus Pichler, Wien Museum)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It all begins in the steps leading up from the foyer, where you can lose a few minutes spotting personalities and events immortalised in the huge wall panorama of the Prater that fills the foyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The museum is quick to get around: two further floors explore such themes as theatrical entertainments and sports with the help of audiovisual material but mostly through illustrative exhibits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consider it all a dip into past times.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"337\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/pratermuseum2024d.jpg\" alt=\"19th-century coin-operated machine\" class=\"wp-image-69951\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/pratermuseum2024d.jpg 337w, https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/pratermuseum2024d-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 337px) 100vw, 337px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size\">(Just a few coins and this 1897 machine will tell you the personality of your ideal spouse; press photo: Peter and Birgit Kainz, Wien Museum)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So you might peruse a 19th-century coffee house menu, where the cheapest lunchtime special cost 1 Gulden for soup, garnished beef, a roast with salad and a pastry (of course).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or read advertisements for exotic animal shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or view a model of that 1873 World Fair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or consider who might have put coins in the 1897 marriage brokerage machine that promised to reveal the characteristics of your ideal spouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"tickets\">Tickets &amp; visitor tips<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>At the time of writing, a standard adult entrance ticket costs \u20ac8. Anyone under 19 goes in for free. Check the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wienmuseum.at\/pratermuseum\">official website<\/a> for opening days and times, which are limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finding other things to do in the area is, obviously, easy since you&#8217;re surrounded by the huge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/wurstelprater-amusement-park\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"35559\">Prater fun park<\/a>. Pop out onto the Pratermuseum balcony on the upper level for raised views into the entertainment complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/entertainment\/madame-tussauds\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"35377\">Madame Tussauds<\/a> is across the square, as is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/riesenrad\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"271\">Riesenrad giant ferris wheel<\/a> of <em>Third Man<\/em> fame. Not to mention various snack bars and restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Wien Museum has many other locations throughout Vienna. However, the apartment where Johann Strauss II <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/footsteps\/strauss-apartment\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"21449\">lived with his family<\/a> and wrote the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/culture\/is-the-danube-blue\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"5044\">Blue Danube waltz<\/a> is actually within walking distance of the Pratermuseum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, should you wish to explore a wider history of Vienna, then make you way to the permanent exhibition of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/sights\/museums\/wien-museum-karlsplatz\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"66174\">Wien Museum on Karlsplatz<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to get to the Pratermuseum<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The museum is easy to find within the Prater complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First find your way to Praterstern station: the U1 and U2 subway lines that leave from, for example, Stephansplatz, Karlsplatz, Schottenring and Schwedenplatz in the centre stop here, as do tram lines 5 and O.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Follow the signs to leave the station and cross the road in the direction of the Riesenrad, which you can also easily spot once outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This takes you to the main entrance of the Prater entertainment complex: a small square to the left of the ferris wheel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, go straight ahead either left or right around the dodgems to find the Pratermuseum just a few metres beyond (on your right if you went left and vice versa).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Address: Prater 92, 1020 Vienna<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/d\/u\/0\/embed?mid=1MSzFPzvbN1BdY_oXvkPgQltRSY4gwncM\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The history of the Prater, a place full of the esoteric and exciting, the forbidden and the unusual<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69947,"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":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-70049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-museums","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70049","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70049"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87594,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70049\/revisions\/87594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visitingvienna.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}