Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Museum of Military History)

The Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, in a purpose-built Historicist hall at Vienna's Arsenal complex, is both the oldest and the largest military history museum in the world, tracing Austrian and Habsburg military history from the 16th century through both World Wars to the present. The building's richly decorated sandstone facade, dedicated to allegorical military virtues by sculptor Hanns Gasser, is itself a piece of 19th-century Historicist architecture worth seeing.

Its single most historically significant object is the open touring car in which Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 — the event that triggered the July Crisis and, within weeks, World War I — displayed alongside the actual blood-stained tunic Franz Ferdinand was wearing. Beyond that one extraordinary artefact, the museum's halls cover uniforms, weapons, naval history and the Habsburg military's long, complex relationship with the empire it defended.