The Wiener Kriminal Museum = disgusting...and Leopoldstadt

Today, in my quest to find the Tandelmarkt again, I stumbled upon the Wiener Kriminal Museum, which was only a block or two away from the market.  I was taking photos of the building when I decided to go in with a family.

It's a cool-looking building that's a couple hundred years old.

Anyways, going in this museum was a mistake.  I went in, thinking it'd feature Austria's notorious criminals or something.

Oh no.  No no no.  It ended up being a very graphic and highly informative museum, filled with criminals, yes, but also their weapons, their forms of torture and execution once they were captured, and plenty of paintings and photographs of them being tortured, killed or dead.  I was one-third of the way through the tour and wanted to leave but couldn't, so I tried to get out of there ASAP without looking at stuff because I was feeling so nauseous.

I should've done some research about the place before I went in!  According to this website, 

"The Vienna Crime Museum is another interesting chapter in the Viennese obsession with death. It takes a tabloid-style look at crimes and criminals in Austria and dwells on murders in the last 100 years or so with particularly grisly relish; there are skulls of earlier criminals, and even an 18th-century head pickled in a jar. Other displays include death masks of convicted murderers and weapons supposedly used to carry out the murders."

So.  GROSS!

Before I got too overwhelmed, I did take some photos.

There were life-sized paintings all over the place.

Yeesh!

This was of a woman in the 1800s who poisoned another woman.

YUCK!!!

There were multiple skulls, masked skulls of dead men, and a mummified skull in this place.  I was more than happy to get the heck out of there and into some fresh air.  :-/

Around the corner is a historic church called St. Leopold Parish (in English).  It's at the site of a former Jewish synagogue.

This is one of the golden plaques around the city that commemorates the memories of Jews, usually ones that were deported during WWII.  This one says, "To the memory of the expulsion of the 2 Viennese Jewish communities in the years 1670/1671."

Since this wild tour, I've been home, trying to feel better with some delicious iced coffee and some soothing Miles Davis.  Tomorrow's Easter, and I've got several excursions planned for next week.

Stay tuned!