The rotating shows
Serious contemporary art in a classical town.
Praktikant KH — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gerd Eichmann — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gerd Eichmann — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gerd Eichmann — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Staatliche Kunsthalle in Baden-Baden is a contemporary art institution with no permanent collection at all: its programme is temporary exhibitions only, three or four a year. That means what you see depends entirely on when you come — you may find a significant international show or experimental work by an artist you have never heard of. The building is neoclassical, from 1909, standing on the Lichtentaler Allee, the long tree-lined promenade that runs beside the river Oos and forms Baden-Baden's spine — a shaded walk of mature trees laid out when the town was the summer resort of the European elite in the nineteenth century. The Kunsthalle's strength is that it has gone on showing serious contemporary art in a town of predominantly classical, conservative character, making it a deliberate point of contrast in the scene. The visit is relatively short — an hour suffices — and it combines easily with a walk along the promenade itself or the neighbouring Museum LA8.
Serious contemporary art in a classical town.
Mature trees along the Oos before the building.
Lichtentaler Allee 8a, 76530 Baden-Baden
Museum Frieder BurdaThe Museum Frieder Burda is a small, elegant white building on Lichtentaler Alle1 minute walk4.6
Museum LA8Museum LA8 is devoted to one precisely defined subject: the nineteenth century —1 minute walk4.6
Lichtentaler AlleeLichtentaler Allee is a long tree-lined walk running about three kilometres besi2 minutes walk4.7
The Empress Augusta MonumentA monument to Empress Augusta, wife of Emperor Wilhelm I, in central Baden-Baden2 minutes walk4.4
Kurhaus Baden-BadenThe Kurhaus in Baden-Baden is a white-columned nineteenth-century classical buil3 minutes walk4.6It is a tree-lined promenade about two kilometres long running along the Oos and linking the town centre with Lichtental Abbey, laid out in the eighteenth century and developed in the nineteenth with rare trees brought from around the world. It is effectively Baden-Baden's foremost sight, and most of the town's museums and major buildings stand along it — so walking it is the natural way to see the place.