Haus der Musik

Haus der Musik opened in 2000 as Austria's first museum dedicated to sound itself, inside the Palace of Archduke Charles where Otto Nicolai — founder of the Vienna Philharmonic — once lived. Rather than displaying instruments behind glass, the museum is built around hands-on, often playful exhibits: rooms exploring the physics of sound and hearing, a "sonosphere" of unusual acoustic experiences, and — the exhibit most visitors remember — a virtual conducting booth where a motion-sensing baton lets you conduct the Vienna Philharmonic and watch the orchestra speed up, slow down or (if you're bad at it) mutiny on screen.

Upper floors are devoted to the great Viennese composers — Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and the Strauss dynasty all lived and worked in this city, and the museum uses interactive displays rather than static biography panels to trace what made Vienna the classical music capital of the world for over a century.