Globe Museum

The Globe Museum in Palais Mollard on Viennas Herrengasse is the only public museum in the world devoted exclusively to globes. Part of the Austrian National Library, the collection was founded in 1956 from the holdings of the former Imperial Library and today holds more than 700 pairs of terrestrial and celestial globes, including several pieces from the 16th century. Star items include the 1693 globe pair by Venetian cartographer Vincenzo Coronelli and a Japanese Edo-period earth globe. The display also explains lunar maps and armillary spheres, small mechanical models of the solar system. The Baroque palais was designed by architect Anton Ospel, and admission also covers the Esperanto Museum housed in the same building. Anyone who loves maps or astronomy finds a specialist collection here that is otherwise hard to access.