They formed the 1st Capital Ship Division of the Austro-Hungarian Navy until they were replaced by the newly commissioned Habsburg-class predreadnought battleships at the turn of the century.

At only 5,785 tonnes (5,694 long tons) maximum displacement,[1] the Monarch class was less than half the size of the battleships of other major navies at the time[2] and were officially designated as coast defense ships.

Wien's maximum load of 500 metric tons (490 LT) of coal gave her a range of 3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) at a speed of 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph).

[4] The armament of the Monarch class consisted of four 240-millimeter (9.4 in) Krupp K/94 guns mounted in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure.

[7] The Monarch-class ships were ordered in May 1892[8] with Budapest and Wien to be built at the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard in Trieste.

In early 1902 they made another training cruise to the Western Mediterranean with port visits in Algeria, Spain, France, Italy, Corfu, and Albania.

Those maneuvers marked the first time two homogeneous squadrons consisting of modern battleships operated in the Austro-Hungarian Navy.

[11] In 1905, Wien made a cruise of the Levant and visited ports in Greece, the Ottoman Empire, Egypt and Albania.

They participated in a fleet review by Archduke Franz Ferdinand in September conducted in the Koločepski Channel near Šipan.

Budapest and Wien opened fire at 10:35 at a range of about 9–10 kilometers (5.6–6.2 mi) and knocked out most of the Italian guns after about a half-hour.

[16] Anxious to avenge themselves against the Austro-Hungarians, the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) made plans for a sneak attack on the two ships in their berths in the Bay of Muggia, near Trieste, by MAS launches.

[17] On the night of 9/10 December, two MAS boats managed to penetrate the harbor defenses undetected, and fired torpedoes at Wien and Budapest at 02:32.

[18] All of the watertight doors were open on board the Wien and the ship capsized in five minutes despite an attempt to counter her growing list by flooding the trim tanks on the opposite side.

[6] Wien was buried in the mud of the harbor bottom at a depth of 16.5 meters (54 ft) and salvage of the ship was ordered on 14 December.

As punishment the court recommended that Koudelka and the two ship captains be retired and the commander of the naval defenses of Trieste to be returned to his former reserve status.