Warning: Many many pictures were taken in this day trip to two big museums in Vienna. Because of the no flash photography factor involved, some of these pictures may appear a little blurry. The amount of pictures uploaded here is probably only a little of what was actually taken, so you can imagine how picture crazy I went in the museums. Perhaps, I am not ashamed to be a tourist. Sometimes I don't have to do what the Romans do in Rome. Sometimes, it is still nice to experience a city as a foreigner.... enjoy whatever local delights I can (e.g. Cake) and just sit back and appreciate other local delights that I can't (e.g. coffee).
The imperial treasury is located in the Hofburg palace area. Note that museums are relatively cheap to enter if you compared dollar to dollar. With the exception of the Schonbrunn palace, most places won't cost more than 1o Euros for entry and there are always combination tickets involved. We bought a combination ticket to the Art museum and imperial treasury and managed to save 2 Euros... which can be quite important especially you planned on eating/drinking alot like we did.
The imperial treasury:
Items used during the coronation of the Habsburg kings. Royal families obviously have a passion for gold items... gold is heavy man!!!
Insignia of the order of the golden fleece
Ceremonial sword and the handle/case of the sword was believed to be made from the precious unicorn horn, as befitting items made for royalty i supposed :)
The gold plated bible which was used in the crowning ceremony... can't remember what the second item was for... it was used to keep something..
Imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire
The top one is like a gold plated engraved family tree object. Below is a pure aquamarine stone... one of my favourite stones in the entire collection :) Now I know why the brilliant cut is so popular! The reflection of the light off the stone really makes it look very pretty!
World's largest cut emerald stone
Apparently, there was once a rebel who tried to crown himself king in Hungary and was supported by the Turkish Ottoman empire. This crown was supposed to be a gift from the Turkish king to the rebel king. But unfortunately, the rebel was put down before the crown could be given to him.
Turkish style sword. Unknown reasons as to why it was found in the Habsburg treasury.
Top one: Garnet stone set in centrepiece. Called La Bella... Bottom left is the huge opal stone. Bottom right is the huge ametheryst stone... a rather precious and popular stone in spain till they started bringing in armloads from the Americas.
One of the inalienable heirlooms, 4th Century agate dish stolen from constantinople in 1204 and orginally believed to be the holy grail.
This was used for baptism purposes...
The imperial treasury is located in the Hofburg palace area. Note that museums are relatively cheap to enter if you compared dollar to dollar. With the exception of the Schonbrunn palace, most places won't cost more than 1o Euros for entry and there are always combination tickets involved. We bought a combination ticket to the Art museum and imperial treasury and managed to save 2 Euros... which can be quite important especially you planned on eating/drinking alot like we did.
The imperial treasury:
Items used during the coronation of the Habsburg kings. Royal families obviously have a passion for gold items... gold is heavy man!!!
Insignia of the order of the golden fleece
Ceremonial sword and the handle/case of the sword was believed to be made from the precious unicorn horn, as befitting items made for royalty i supposed :)
The gold plated bible which was used in the crowning ceremony... can't remember what the second item was for... it was used to keep something..
Imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire
The top one is like a gold plated engraved family tree object. Below is a pure aquamarine stone... one of my favourite stones in the entire collection :) Now I know why the brilliant cut is so popular! The reflection of the light off the stone really makes it look very pretty!
World's largest cut emerald stone
Apparently, there was once a rebel who tried to crown himself king in Hungary and was supported by the Turkish Ottoman empire. This crown was supposed to be a gift from the Turkish king to the rebel king. But unfortunately, the rebel was put down before the crown could be given to him.
Turkish style sword. Unknown reasons as to why it was found in the Habsburg treasury.
Top one: Garnet stone set in centrepiece. Called La Bella... Bottom left is the huge opal stone. Bottom right is the huge ametheryst stone... a rather precious and popular stone in spain till they started bringing in armloads from the Americas.
One of the inalienable heirlooms, 4th Century agate dish stolen from constantinople in 1204 and orginally believed to be the holy grail.
This was used for baptism purposes...
The imperial crown of Austria
Would also just like to note that among other things that I did not photograph included the spear which was supposedly used to piece Jesus on his side and also the nail which was said to come from the right side of the cross on which Jesus was cruxified on. How true it is, we won't know, but it's pretty COOL.... 
Painting by Bruegel... Netherlands artist who was famous for his potrayal of civilian life
My favourite painting from Bruegel: The tower of Babel
Painting of Schonbrunn palace: it still looks really similar to what it looks like today!
Many of the renaissance artists loved painting scenes from the bible... so alot of blibical images from now on..
Paintings of Michaelangelo triumping over the devil were one of my favourite themes when looking at paintings from the renaissance period.
Heh... I bet this portrait that is currently being painted will be hung up in about a few months time to replace the current one..
Raffaelo's Madonna in the Meadow painting.
Paintings by Correggio. This painting tells the story of Jupiter who likes this young shepherd boy, and decides to make him his servant and takes him away in the form of an eagle..
For some reason, I really liked this cheeky painting of Cupid, who is depicted here carving his bow..
Artist interpretation of Abraham being put to test by god (He was asked to sacrifice his son)
There are ample seats in the museum where we can sit down, listen to the audio guide or just gaze at the paintings...
Title of this painting is Bravo, which meant Assassin in Italian.
Would also just like to note that among other things that I did not photograph included the spear which was supposedly used to piece Jesus on his side and also the nail which was said to come from the right side of the cross on which Jesus was cruxified on. How true it is, we won't know, but it's pretty COOL....
Kunsthistorisches Museum (Fine Arts museum): The interior of the museum is really really pretty. Even before we saw any of the exhibits, we were already like ohhhhh and snapping pictures immediately.
Just some of the notable pictures that I was interested in...
Rembrandt's self potrait
Rembrandt's self potrait
Altar pictures by Reubens. All of this paintings hung above the altar of churces at one point in time. Just look at the size of them, and wondering how it all managed to be hand painted by one person was like wow...
Painting by Bruegel... Netherlands artist who was famous for his potrayal of civilian life
My favourite painting from Bruegel: The tower of Babel
Painting of Schonbrunn palace: it still looks really similar to what it looks like today!
Many of the renaissance artists loved painting scenes from the bible... so alot of blibical images from now on..
Paintings of Michaelangelo triumping over the devil were one of my favourite themes when looking at paintings from the renaissance period.
Heh... I bet this portrait that is currently being painted will be hung up in about a few months time to replace the current one..
Raffaelo's Madonna in the Meadow painting.
Paintings by Correggio. This painting tells the story of Jupiter who likes this young shepherd boy, and decides to make him his servant and takes him away in the form of an eagle..
For some reason, I really liked this cheeky painting of Cupid, who is depicted here carving his bow..
Artist interpretation of Abraham being put to test by god (He was asked to sacrifice his son)
There are ample seats in the museum where we can sit down, listen to the audio guide or just gaze at the paintings...
Paintings by Tiziano.. whom I think was a famous potrait painter during the Renaissance..
Title of this painting is Bravo, which meant Assassin in Italian.
To end off, I shall just mention that we went to these places on Easter sunday, and when we got off at the metro stop at Stephenplatz where the cathedral was, we were greeted by sights of a protest right in front of the church!! I think they were protesting against the conservative state of the church.. from all the free sex signs... but we didn't stay long to see... we were more interested in sightseeing haha..
