Belvedere Tickets: Upper vs Lower, The Kiss and When to Go

The short version

The Belvedere is two Baroque palaces facing each other across a sloping formal garden, built for Prince Eugene of Savoy in the early eighteenth century and now home to the Austrian national collection. It is also where you will find **Gustav Klimt's *The Kiss***. Most visitors need just one ticket:

• **For *The Kiss* and the great Klimts: the Upper Belvedere — €23.** This is the one to buy if you are short of time.
• For the palace interiors and exhibitions too: the 2-in-1 day ticket — €32. Upper and Lower Belvedere on the same day.
• Under 19? Entry is free, as at all Austria's federal museums.

Prices from belvedere.at, checked September 2026. Arrive at 09:00 when the Upper Belvedere opens, go straight to the Klimt rooms, and you will have *The Kiss* almost to yourself.

The three Belvedere sites

Upper Belvedere (Oberes Belvedere) — the grand palace at the top of the garden. Its permanent collection runs from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, but the heart of it is Vienna around 1900: the world's largest collection of Klimt paintings, with Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka and Richard Gerstl alongside. Open daily 09:00–18:00.

Lower Belvedere (Unteres Belvedere) — Prince Eugene's actual residence, at the bottom of the garden, with Baroque state rooms, the Orangery and major temporary exhibitions. Open daily 10:00–18:00.

Belvedere 21 — a pavilion near the Hauptbahnhof for contemporary Austrian art and events. Open Tuesday to Sunday 11:00–18:00, Thursday until 21:00.

The Belvedere gardens between the two palaces — terraces, fountains and sphinxes, with a view down to St. Stephen's — are free to walk through.

Belvedere ticket prices, 2026

Adult prices from belvedere.at, checked September 2026:

| Ticket | Price | What you see | |---|---|---| | Upper Belvedere | €23 | Permanent collection incl. *The Kiss* | | Lower Belvedere | €17 | State rooms, Orangery, temporary exhibitions | | Belvedere 21 | €12 | Contemporary art | | 2-in-1 day ticket | €32 | Upper + Lower Belvedere, same day | | 3-in-1 ticket | €34 | All three sites | | Gold Pass | €49 | Top-tier ticket — check current terms on belvedere.at |

Which one should you buy?

• One to two hours, Klimt the priority: Upper Belvedere, €23. Nothing else.
• Half a day and interest in Baroque interiors, or a current exhibition you want to see: 2-in-1, €32. The Lower Belvedere alone would cost €17, so the combination saves €8.
• Contemporary art lovers: 3-in-1, €34 — only €2 more than the 2-in-1, though Belvedere 21 sits a separate walk away and is closed on Mondays.
• Travelling with teenagers: remember that under-19s go free; only the adults need tickets.

Buy on belvedere.at. Online tickets let you skip the ticket-desk queue, which in summer and at weekends can be long at the Upper Belvedere. Resellers and tour platforms sell the same entry, often with a mark-up; a guided tour can be worth it, but a "skip-the-line" ticket rarely is when you can simply buy online. The Vienna City Card gives a discount rather than free entry — see Vienna City Card vs Vienna PASS for whether that adds up.

*The Kiss* and the other Klimts

*The Kiss* (*Der Kuss*, 1908–09) is the most famous painting in Austria and hangs in the Upper Belvedere, not the Lower — a surprisingly common mix-up. It is larger than most people expect, almost square at around 180 centimetres a side, and its gold leaf shifts with the light as you move. Give it more than the obligatory photograph: step back to the far side of the room, then close in to look at the patterns of the two figures' robes — rectangles for him, circles and flowers for her.

In the same rooms you will find other key works of Klimt's golden period and after, including *Judith* (1901), luminous portraits of Viennese society women and several of his square landscapes painted on summer holidays at the Attersee. Nearby hang Schiele's raw, angular portraits and Kokoschka's early work — the whole argument of Vienna 1900 on a few walls. For the background, read our city essay on Vienna 1900.

When to go

• 09:00, weekdays is the best slot of the week. Tour groups arrive mid-morning; the Klimt rooms are busiest between about 11:00 and 15:00.
• The last two hours before closing are the second-best option, especially outside summer.
• Weekends and rainy days are the busiest — the Belvedere is the obvious indoor plan for everyone else too.
• Allow 1.5–2 hours for the Upper Belvedere, another hour for the Lower Belvedere, plus time for the garden walk between them.

A practical note: local press reported that construction of a new visitor centre in front of the Upper Belvedere would run from spring 2026 to autumn 2027 — the reason the Belvedere Christmas market is not expected in 2026. Expect building work around the forecourt and follow the signs to the entrance.

Getting there and combining it

The Upper Belvedere entrance faces the Prinz-Eugen-Straße, in the Landstraße district just south-east of the Ring. It is about a 25-minute walk from the Opera, or a short ride on tram D from the Ring — check live departures in the WienMobil app. The Hauptbahnhof is a short walk south, which makes the Belvedere an easy first or last visit if you arrive by train.

The best walking order: start at the Upper Belvedere at opening, walk down through the garden, see the Lower Belvedere if you have the 2-in-1, and exit on Rennweg. From there, three good continuations:

• North-west to Karlsplatz (15 minutes): Karlskirche and the Wien Museum, whose free permanent exhibition includes Klimt's portrait of Emilie Flöge.
• North to the Ring (15 minutes): coffee at Café Schwarzenberg, the oldest café on the Ringstrasse, opened in 1861.
• East to Hundertwasser (20 minutes): the colourful Hundertwasser House, seen from the street.

If you want to sleep close by, the NH Wien Belvedere and Lindner Hotel am Belvedere are both in the neighbourhood.

Where else to see Klimt in Vienna

The Belvedere is only the start. A Klimt day can take in five more sites (prices checked September 2026 on each official site):

• Secession — the Beethoven Frieze (1902), painted for an exhibition and now in its own basement room, under the building's golden dome. €13, Tuesday to Sunday, free on the first Wednesday of the month.
• Leopold Museum — Klimt paintings and a major Schiele collection in the MuseumsQuartier. €19, closed Tuesdays.
• Kunsthistorisches Museum — the young Klimt painted figures in the spandrels of the grand staircase; a pre-booked time slot is required. €22 online.
• Wien Museum — the Emilie Flöge portrait, free.
• Albertina — Klimt drawings appear in its exhibitions. €20.90.

For the full picture of Vienna's art around 1900, follow our Jugendstil walk and browse the Vienna museums guide.

Belvedere, Schönbrunn or the Hofburg?

If you can only do one imperial site, choose by interest. The Belvedere is about art — Klimt above all — in a Baroque setting. Schönbrunn is about imperial life, with the apartments of Maria Theresa, Franz Joseph and Sisi. The Hofburg is the Habsburgs' city palace, with the Sisi Museum and the Treasury. Our Schönbrunn tickets guide and Hofburg and Sisi Museum guide help you compare, and our palaces page puts them side by side.