The museum is located in Vienna's Arsenal, in the Landstraße district, not far from the Belvedere palace. It was built between 1850 and 1856 at the behest of Emperor Franz Joseph I as the new city garrison, after the old one was destroyed in the 1848 revolution. The architect was Theophil Hansen. In front of its main entrance, the museum once displayed the MiG-21 of Croatian pilot Rudolf Perešin who deserted JNA. The plane was returned to the Croatian armed forces after the wars in Yugoslavia.