The Viennese coffee house and its culture shaped Vienna and its people as who they are today. Being UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2011, Vienna of course needs it’s own Coffee Museum.
Two weeks ago my friend and I had two hours to spare as we were waiting for my friend’s train. As you might already know, I am a coffee lover and love to go to traditional cafes as well as modern coffeeshops. And because my friend enjoys it as well, we decided to deepen our knowledge about the black gold which probably secretly rules the word. We went on and visited the coffee museum near Vienna’s main train station (Hauptbahnhof). Our visit to the museum was a short, but interesting and perfect to spend those two hours.
Some items of the Coffee Museum as well as their logo on a flag.
How to get there, or: Our Odyssey through Vienna’s 10th and 5th district
Although it is easily accessible from the main train station (Hauptbahnhof) and Matzleinsdorfer Platz by a 10 to 15 minute walk, be careful when you ask Google Maps for directions.
Don’t trust Google Maps! Caution: Search for the address on their website, not for Kaffeemuseum!
Just don’t make the same mistake as us and look for the museum itself but for their address stated on their website: Vogelsanggasse 36. The Coffee Museum (Kaffeemuseum in German) is inside the Museum for Society and Economy (Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum) so you can also look for that. We finally arrived at the real Viennese Coffee Museum after a little detour to the location which is stated as Kaffeemuseum on Google Maps. Whoops.
We finally found the museum after a little detour. Doens’t the building look cool?
After we paid the 2,50 Euro entrance fee, which also allows you to visit the Museum for Society and Economy, we got a little introduction to the place. The Museum for Society and Economy has, rather than the classic showcases, replicated old Viennese apartment rooms from the last century, before, during and after World War 2 in it.
Touring the Viennese Coffee Museum
The museum is situated in five rooms on the ground/first floor. It is full with lots of different items which are all related to coffee and Viennese coffee house culture: coffee machines, cups, roasting devises, mills, coffee house furniture and lots of different sugar bags which were fun to look at. In one of the rooms they also take their time and explain the origin of Vienna’s coffee culture.
The fun starts already at the entrance. It’s hard to decide what to look at first.
The last room is full with furniture from a traditional coffee house, showcases with antique cups from all over Austria as well as different coffee beans.
In the biggest room you can see furniture from a traditional Viennese coffee house.
Aren’t these cups awesome? Too cool to drink from them.
So many different coffee beans on display.
Don’t forget to leave a message
We really enjoyed our visit and were happy to find a place we could manage with only a short amout of time available. It was not too demanding because there was not too much to read. This was good because we were tired after a busy weekend. We could easily focus on all the items instead. At the end we signed their guest book and left a little message for other visitors and operators.
Don’t forget to leave a message in the guest book.
Mister Wong’s insider tips for a more relaxed visit:
- No matter how you want to get there, just be careful when you use Google Maps.
- Don’t get confused by the “entrance fee” of 15 Euros. That just applies for the guided tour. It costs just 2,50 Euro per person to get in.
- We were done quite fast. It took us about an hour to look at all the pieces carefully. But it was still a lot of fun to explore the rooms and study at all the different and special coffee makers, machines and cups.
- Don’t forget to visit their official website for further information.
- And: Keep your eyes open for beautiful details and find your favourite item.
They had so many cool and beautiful coffee mills to look at. This hand painted one with the detailed roses on it is my favorite one.
Liked what you read?
Even if not, please follow me on all my social media accounts like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest where I only seldom post anything of importance because of major procrastination attacks. At least I plan to post something useful occasionally.
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/where.is.mrwong/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/where.is.mrwong/
Twitter → https://twitter.com/where_is_mrwong/
Pinterest → https://www.pinterest.at/whereismrwong/