MuseumsQuartier Wien

One of the largest cultural quarters in the world, set in the former imperial court stables just behind the Ringstrasse museums.

The long Baroque front on Museumsplatz belongs to the Hofstallungen, the court stables and riding halls designed by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach in the early eighteenth century. After decades of debate the complex was converted, to plans by the architects Ortner & Ortner, and opened as the MuseumsQuartier in 2001. Two new volumes were set into the old courtyards: the white limestone cube of the Leopold Museum and the dark basalt block of mumok, the museum of modern art. Around them are the Kunsthalle Wien, the Architekturzentrum, the ZOOM children's museum, the Tanzquartier and a scatter of cafés and shops.

The courtyards are free and open to anyone, and that is half the appeal. In warm weather they fill with students and office workers lounging on the MQ's big, brightly coloured outdoor furniture, and the terraces stay busy late into the evening. Each museum has its own ticket; the Leopold Museum, with its Schiele and Klimt, is the one most visitors choose.

Honest advice: treat it as a place to sit between museums rather than a sight in itself. The Burgtheater and the Hofburg are a short walk across the Ring, and the lanes of Spittelberg with their restaurants start right behind. Neighbourhood: Neubau.