The MuseumsQuartier occupies the Habsburgs' imperial stables — a long Baroque range by Fischer von Erlach built for the court's horses and carriages, which by the late twentieth century was a trade-fair hall nobody knew what to do with. The conversion opened in 2001 after fifteen years of public argument, most of it about how tall the new buildings could be. Two went up behind the historic front: the Leopold Museum in white shell limestone, holding the largest collection of Egon Schiele anywhere alongside Klimt, and MUMOK in dark grey basalt, Austria's museum of modern and contemporary art. Around them are an exhibition hall, an architecture centre, a children's museum and a dance house.
The part locals use is the courtyard. It is furnished with the Enzis — chunky modular loungers repainted a new colour once a year — and functions as a public living room: students, office workers and families sit out on them for hours with a coffee or a beer. In summer the evenings fill and the programme in the courtyard changes with the season.