List of cruisers of Austria-Hungary

Between the 1870s and 1910s, the Austro-Hungarian Navy built a series of cruisers of various types, including small torpedo cruisers, protected cruisers, fast scout cruisers and large armored cruisers. The first modern cruisers were the three Zara class begun in the late 1870s; a fourth vessel, Lussin, followed in the early 1880s. These ships proved to be unsatisfactory in service, and so to gain experience building effective vessels, the Navy ordered the two Panther-class cruisers from Britain. These were used as the basis for the domestically-built Tiger. Toward the end of the 1880s, the Navy shifted from building small torpedo cruisers to larger protected and armored cruisers, the first of which were the two Kaiser Franz Joseph I-class cruisers. These provided the basis for the armored cruisers Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia, Kaiser Karl VI, and Sankt Georg, built between 1891 and 1905.

In the mid-1890s, the three Zenta-class cruisers were built; these proved to be the last protected cruisers of the Austro-Hungarian fleet. In the mid-1900s, the Navy started building scout cruisers, starting with Admiral Spaun, which proved to be a disappointment owing to her unreliable engines. The subsequent design, the Novara class, rectified the problem and they shouldered much of the burden of the Adriatic Campaign during World War I. They were the last class of cruisers completed before the war, as the Ersatz Zenta class was cancelled after the outbreak of hostilities, just two months after they had been authorized.