Archduke Franz Ferdinand Museum

Since 1982, the castle has been home to the Archduke Franz Ferdinand Museum, which provides visitors with an insight into the life of the heir to the throne and his family in the permanent exhibition "Archduke Franz Ferdinand's Life & Work".

Artstetten Castle lies high above the Danube at the gateway to the Wachau in Lower Austria. Surrounded by a dreamy park, it provides a fairytale setting for experiencing the fateful years of Austria and Europe. Artstetten Palace served as the family seat and summer residence of the imperial family and was the final resting place of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne, and his wife, Duchess Sophie von Hohenberg, who both fell victim to a fanatical youth in Sarajevo in 1914.

Visitors to the museum experience the fine line between happiness and suffering, life and death, and enter the multifaceted world of the political thinker, reformer, collector and, above all, family man Archduke Franz Ferdinand. A touching family history comes to life! The permanent exhibition "Through the Keyhole: History Told!" is gripping and factual.
History is shown from a different perspective.