10 of Europe’s best sculpture parks and open-air galleries | Travel

Vigeland Sculpture Park, Oslo, Norway

More than 200 works in granite, bronze and wrought iron by Gustav Vigeland, from avant garde installations to the vast Monolith. Free to enter and open every day, it’s a great spot for a picnic, with an adjoining museum if the weather is cold. Stay at the elegant Saga Hotel.
Doubles from £102 B&B, sagahoteloslo.com; vigeland.museum.no

Fondation Maeght, Alpes-Maritimes, France

Some of the world’s greatest modern sculptors, including Braque, Giacometti and Miró, helped create France’s most important art foundation, with the sun-drenched gardens hosting their works alongside those of Calder, Chagall and others. Mosaics, wind sculptures and fountains are dotted between the trees, with a courtyard dedicated to Giacometti and an exhibition focusing on Bonnard and Matisse (until 6 October). The beautiful hilltop village of Saint-Paul de Vence is close by; stay at Les Bastides Saint-Paul, a family-run hotel with a tree-framed pool.
Doubles from £113 room-only, hotelbastides.fr/en; fondation-maeght.com

East Side Gallery, Berlin, Germany

History and art combine at this extraordinary open-air gallery that forms the longest continuous section of the Berlin Wall still standing. More than 100 paintings cover the brickwork, with world-famous works such as Dmitri Vrubel’s Fraternal Kiss and Birgit Kinder’s Trabant, which seems to be breaking through the wall, alongside lesser-known paintings. Stay at the Hotel Indigo – a stone’s throw from the gallery.
Doubles from £176 room-only, ihg.com; stiftung-berliner-mauer.de

Kröller-Müller Museum, Arnhem, the Netherlands

With more than 160 works, including sculptures by Rodin and Moore, the Kröller-Müller, one of Europe’s largest sculpture gardens, is a great family day out. Kids will love the geocaching trail, which leads to a secret art treasure, with plenty of lawns for picnics and an open-air restaurant. Many of the works are child-friendly – kids can scramble over Jean Dubuffet’s Jardin d’émail, or sit beneath Kenneth Snelson’s intricate Needle Tower – and if it rains, the indoor museum has fine works by Van Gogh. Stay at the nearby Hotel Sterrenberg, which has a sizeable wellness centre.
Doubles from £163 room-only, sterrenberg.nl; krollermuller.nl

Museum of Underwater Sculpture, Ayia Napa, Cyprus

One of the most extraordinary artistic experiences in the whole of the Med, Musan is an underwater sculpture forest, with 93 artworks by Jason deCaires Taylor, including trees, plants and more figurative works. Visitors can access the submerged sculpture park, which reaches a depth of eight metres at its deepest part, by snorkelling, free diving or scuba diving. Scuba must always be done as part of a trip with a diving school, while snorkellers can explore independently, with clear views of the artworks from the surface. Stay at Mon Repos, a slick design hotel with all-white rooms around a central pool.
Doubles from £104 B&B, monreposhotel.info; musan.com.cy

Austrian Sculpture Park, Graz

Hop on the bus from Graz and bring a picnic to make a day of it at this vast sculpture garden. Free to enter, with plenty of space for the kids to run around, it features more than 80 works by Austrian and international artists, ranging from abstract shapes to metallic fractals, a concrete boat and a seemingly random heap of aeroplane parts. Erwin Wurm’s Fat House – a lifesize cottage that looks as if it’s been carved out of marshmallow – is one of the most unusual. Stay at the historic Palais Hotel Erzherzog Johann in Graz.
Doubles from £115 room-only, erzherzog-johann.com; museum-joanneum.at

Château La Coste, Aix-en-Provence, France

Set against a backdrop of Provencal vineyards, the 40 artworks and architectural installations at La Coste include pieces by Frank Gehry and Tracey Emin. Andy Goldsworthy’s Oak Room is a lattice of 1,200 pieces of Burgundy oak, while Louise Bourgeois’s vast, muscular spider seems to skate across a shallow pool. The walking route takes 2-3 hours to explore, with two-hour guided tours three times a day (from €15pp). The chateau has rooms, but they are stratospherically expensive; stay down the road at the lovely Auberge La Coste.
Doubles from £269 B&B, aubergelacoste.com; chateau-la-coste.com

Villa Celle, Pistoia, Italy

Considered one of the world’s great collections of environmentally themed art, the Gori Collection rolls out across the Romantic-era park that surrounds Villa Celle, with 80 monumental works by Italian and international sculptors. Towering wooden installations, floating sculptures and intricate wire, metal and iron abstract shapes rise up throughout the park, along with angular figures and hand-carved panels. Visits have to be pre-booked, with daily tours running at 10am or 2.30pm in September and October (closed on Sundays). Stay at Palazzo 42, an elegant boutique hotel in Pistoia’s historic centre.
Doubles from £116 B&B, palazzo42.it; goricoll.it

Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Art Park, Piedmont, Italy

Set among the vineyards that roll out across the Piedmontese hills, this privately owned sculpture park brings together large-scale works by seven artists, encompassing everything from benches made from fallen cypress trees to an outsize, algorithmically generated lizard and exhibits created from reconstituted, resin-coated rubbish. Free to enter, with footpaths and walkways leading through the vines to each of the sculptures, there’s no café but the Osteria Imperfetta in nearby Guarene is a great spot for lunch (weekends only). Stay at Cascina Cortine, a charming relais in the same village.
Doubles from £160 B&B, cascinacortine.com; parcoarte.fsrr.org

Middelheim Museum, Antwerp, Belgium

This is among the oldest alfresco galleries in Europe, with the original castle now a restaurant and shop, looking out over the 100 sculpture works that dot the park. It is divided into six zones, the main four focusing on blurring the lines between nature and art, with abstract figures, outsize, multi-limbed insects, upturned houses and minimalist glass spaces scattered between the trees. It’s free to enter, and visitors are welcome to bring picnics, but the exhibits shouldn’t be touched. Stay at the Pilar, a hip small hotel in the trendy ’t Zuid neighbourhood.
Doubles from £113 room-only, hotelpilar.be; middelheimmuseum.be