Fondation Beyeler

Ernst and Hildy Beyeler spent decades as dealers in Basel and kept the pictures they could not part with, then had Renzo Piano build a long low house for them in a park in Riehen. It opened in 1997 and remains one of the most comfortable places in Europe to look at modern painting: a single glazed spine, daylight from above, and rooms sized so that a Rothko or a Bacon gets a wall to itself. The collection runs from Cezanne and Van Gogh through Picasso, Klee, Giacometti and Rothko, with Monet water lilies hung against a glass wall that opens onto a pond outside. Loan exhibitions take over the building several times a year.

What you actually see

• The Monet room - water lilies facing a glass wall and the pond in the park.
• The Piano building - one long daylit spine set into a park of old trees.
• Picasso and Giacometti - the core of the Beyelers' own collection, held in depth.
• The park - meadow, pond and a view across to the Tulliner hill.

When to go

Open daily, with one late evening in the week. Spring and early summer suit the park, where the meadow is left long and flowering. Big loan shows draw real queues at weekends, so buy a timed ticket or come on a weekday morning. The last hour before closing is usually the emptiest time in the collection rooms.

Honest expectations

It sits in a suburb twenty minutes out of Basel, so it is a trip rather than a stop. Entry is expensive, and during a blockbuster the permanent collection shrinks to a few rooms or vanishes into storage entirely. The park is smaller than the photographs suggest, photography rules are enforced, and the cafe prices match the postcode.

Nearby

Riehen village is a short walk and central Basel is twenty minutes back by tram.