Vienna's natural history museum faces the Kunsthistorisches across Maria-Theresien-Platz, in an identical Ringstrasse-era palace. The collections are vast — 30 million specimens including the world's largest assemblage of meteorites — but the highlight is the Venus of Willendorf, an 11-centimetre limestone fertility figurine carved around 30,000 years ago in Lower Austria and one of the earliest known representations of the human form.
The dinosaur hall, the taxidermied animals in mahogany cases, and the ornate carved interiors all feel slightly Victorian and very charming. A rooftop tour to the museum's dome is offered in summer.