Founded in 1811 by Archduke Johann, a reform-minded Habsburg who loved the mountains and people of Styria, the Universalmuseum Joanneum is the oldest public museum in Austria and one of the largest in central Europe. Its central Graz campus, the Joanneumsviertel, gathers several of its collections around a striking sunken plaza in the middle of the old town. The archduke conceived the institution as a place of learning for everyone, donating his own collections of minerals, plants, coins and instruments to seed it. Over two centuries it has grown into a sprawling organisation with sites across the region, from a castle and an open-air village to the famous blue Kunsthaus across the river. The Joanneumsviertel quarter, redesigned and reopened in 2011 for the museum bicentenary, knits together historic buildings around a glass-roofed courtyard that funnels daylight down into the galleries below. The understated modern design won praise for the way it links the streetscape above with the exhibition spaces underground. Within the quarter visitors find the Neue Galerie, with its collection of modern and contemporary art, the natural history museum with its minerals, fossils and zoological displays, and a multimedia reading lounge, all reached from a single shared entrance. The mix is deliberately broad, reflecting the founder belief that art and science belong together, and a single ticket allows movement between disciplines that elsewhere would be housed in separate institutions far apart. Set in the centre of a city whose old town is a World Heritage Site, the Joanneumsviertel makes an easy and varied stop, and the airy plaza, with its cafe and bookshop, has become a popular meeting place in its own right, busy with students, families and visitors throughout the day. Archduke Johann himself was an unusual figure for his rank, a Habsburg who married a postmaster daughter, championed industry and farming, and identified closely with the ordinary people of his beloved Styria, and the museum he founded still reflects that democratic spirit. The breadth of the collections, from prehistoric fossils to cutting-edge contemporary art across the river, makes the Joanneum a cultural backbone of the whole region rather than a single building, and the central quarter is the best place to sample its range.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: Kalchberggasse, Graz, Austria

Telephone: +43 316 8017 9100

Website: https://www.museum-joanneum.at

Opening Date: 01/01/1811