Best Museums in Europe | Art, History & Cultural Collections

The National Gallery

London's free national art museum on Trafalgar Square, showcasing European masterpieces from the 13th to 20th century.

Les Invalides

A golden-domed 17th-century complex in Paris housing Napoleon's tomb and one of the world's great military history museums.

The National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam beside the Oosterdok waterfront with a historic sailing ship

The National Maritime Museum (Scheepvaartmuseum)

Amsterdam's grand maritime museum, set in a 17th-century naval warehouse with a life-size VOC ship moored outside.

The Capitoline Museums

Rome's Capitoline Hill museum complex packed with ancient sculpture, Renaissance art, and sweeping views over the Roman Forum.

NEMO Science Museum

Amsterdam's hands-on science museum housed in a striking ship-shaped building, with five floors of experiments and a free rooftop terrace.

Galleria Borghese

A compact Rome villa museum packed with Bernini sculpture, Caravaggio paintings, and centuries of art history.

Hofburg Palace

Vienna's sprawling former imperial palace, seat of the Habsburgs for six centuries and now home to museums, the president, and the Spanish Riding School.

Belvedere Palace

A Baroque palace pair in Vienna holding Austria's finest art collection, including Klimt's The Kiss, set within landscaped formal gardens.

Kunsthistorisches Museum

Vienna's grand Ringstrasse art museum, built to house five centuries of Habsburg art collecting under a soaring central dome.

Albertina Museum

A former Habsburg palace in central Vienna holding one of the world's great print collections alongside Monet, Klimt, and Picasso.

Swiss National Museum

Zurich's fairytale-castle museum of Swiss cultural history, pairing a 19th-century chateau with a bold concrete extension by the river.

Kunsthaus Zürich

A world-class art museum in Zurich boasting Switzerland's most significant art collection and a striking modern architectural extension.

FIFA World Football Museum in Zurich with its modern black-and-glass façade

FIFA Museum

A state-of-the-art interactive museum dedicated to the global history, passion, and cultural impact of association football and the FIFA World Cup.

Rietberg Museum

Set in a beautiful historic park, the Rietberg Museum houses an exquisite, world-class collection of traditional and contemporary non-European art.

Topkapi Palace

A sprawling, magnificent palace complex overlooking the Bosphorus that served as the primary residence and administrative headquarters of the Ottoman Sultans for nearly 400 years.