From left, the renovated Mumok museum, and the Vienna Boys' Choir at MuTh

AUSTRIA

By Elizabeth Woodson

1. VIENNA'S CULTURAL LEAP
Culture junkies, take note: Vienna is flexing its creative muscle, with new and renovated museums, galleries, and performance spaces opening along its gilded streets. Here, the best of what's new on-view.

The 1st District
Kunstkammer Wien: The makeover of this cultural space, closed since 2002, debuts in March. Its collection spans 20 rooms in the Kunsthistorisches Museum with 2,000-plus art pieces accumulated by the Habsburg Empire during the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. 011-43-1-525-240; khm.at   

The 2nd District
The New Contemporary: The city's premier arts fair, the four-day Viennafair, rebranded itself last fall to reflect emerging art trends. Now in its ninth year (this fall, it takes place Oct. 10-13 at the Messe Wien exhibition center), the fair now carries the moniker "The New Contemporary" and brings together galleries and artists from emerging creative markets in Eastern Europe and Asia Minor (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, etc.) with those from more established destinations (Austria, Germany, etc.). viennafair.at

MuTh (Music & Theater): The Vienna Boys' Choir finally has a permanent performance space - something the famed young chanteurs haven't had since their founding in 1498. Located in Augarten park, Vienna's oldest Baroque garden, the 400-seat music center is the city's most technologically advanced performance space. 011-43-1-347-8080-1020; muth.at

Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary-Augarten: Elsewhere in the Augarten, the Belvedere, Vienna's famed museum, teamed up with arts foundation TBA21 to open this exhibition space last May. The venue specializes in contemporary visual and performance arts. 011-43-1-513-98-560; tba21.org/augarten

The 3rd District
21er Haus: After a 10-year closure, the former 20er Haus museum reopened a little more than a year ago in a modernist glass-and-steel-clad building designed for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. The new name gives a nod to the museum's 21st-century reincarnation. Now a branch of the nearby Belvedere, the gallery specializes in contemporary Austrian art from 1945 through present day. 011-43-1-795-57-701; 21erhaus.at

The 7th District
The Museum of Modern Art Foundation Ludwig Vienna (Mumok): In the city's Museumsquartier, Mumok was already considered one of Europe's top modern and contemporary art institutions, thanks to its 9,000-plus-piece collection with works by the likes of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. After bringing on a new director to invigorate the exhibition program and undertaking a 2011 renovation that added a cinema-slash-performance space and a new café, the space has a fresh outlook. The Museumsquartier itself is also worth a look - the complex once served as the imperial stables and now houses some of the city's hottest galleries, restaurants, and museums. 011-43-1-525-000; mumok.at

2. AND ITS TWO CHIC NEW HOTELS
Besides cultural attractions, Vienna also lays claim to fresh eye candy of a different variety with the new Ritz-Carlton, Vienna (011-43-1-311-88; ritzcarlton.com/vienna), in four 19th-century palaces on the 1st District's Ringstrasse. If you prefer something a little more mod, opt for the just-opened Sans Souci Wien (011-43-1-522-2520; sanssouci-wien.com), a high-style property in a restored Viennese townhouse adjacent to the Museumsquartier in the 7th District. Imagined by the Philippe Starck-founded design firm Yoo, the 63 rooms come with original pieces by top-name artists like Lichtenstein, along with furniture by Charles Eames and Arne Jacobsen (including his famed Egg chair).

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