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Gamle Strandvej 13. Daily 10am-5pm, Wed until 10pm; 60kr; www.louisiana.dk . Local trains to Humlebaek every from Central Station (departures every 20min), then a seven-minute signposted walk. Situated right on the coast about 30km north of Copenhagen is one of Europe's most intriguing galleries, Louisiana . With its compelling mixture of unusual architecture and outstanding modern art, set in a memorable natural setting, it's worth at least half a day, though be prepared for huge crowds at weekends during summer. Most of the displays are permanent, although the museum also hosts top-notch temporary exhibitions, plus regular concerts of chamber music and solo recitals, often featuring internationally renowned performers.
Louisiana has an imaginative children's wing where kids can paint and hear stories. Outside, an adventure playground, designed by renowned Italian nature-artist Alfio Bonnano, features enormous birds' nests and playful houses made of boats.
Divided between the museum buildings and the sculpture garden outside, the collection reflects most of the important art movements of the twentieth century. Exploring the gallery's confusing array of nooks and crannies requires time and persistence, though, while finding your way around is further complicated by the fact that, with the exception of the Giacometti and Cobra sections, all the collection's displays get moved from place to place to make way for the many touring exhibitions that stop off here. The museum's interior is entered through an 1855 villa (built by a man whose three wives were all called Louise - hence the museum's name), beyond which stretches a twisting and sometimes bewildering array of glass corridors, laid out in a roughly circular shape, through which loom the intriguing shapes of the sculptures in the grounds outside. Start walking clockwise around the gallery, through a section which usually houses temporary exhibits, to reach a wonderfully lit, purpose-built wing containing several of Giacometti 's gaunt bronze figures and many of his original sketches. Corridors connect from here to a collection of work by artists of the Cobra movement (named after the cities of Co penhagen, Br ussels and A msterdam), a left-wing collective of artists characterized by their distinctive and colourful abstracts. Henry Heerup's odd wood sculptures, including the bizzare Ironing Board Madonna , and some large and characteristically tortured abstracts by Asger Jorn, former Cobra member and one of the country's most renowned artists. You'll also find small rooms dedicated to the bright, Constructivist works of Rodchenko and Delaunay, with their straight lines and simple colours, and large spaces filled with German Anselm Kiefer's energetic canvasses and the large-scale model of a bomber plane he made from lead. There's also a fine collection of Pop Art, with works by Warhol sitting alongside Oldenburg's models of oversized cigarette butts and a lunch box. The grounds outside are dotted with small copses and carefully tended lawns overlooking an old harbour - part of the Danish fleet fled here to escape British cannons during the Napoleonic War - scattered amongst which is a fantastic array of world-class sculpture, most of it specifically designed for this site. Here you'll find the strange, flat, abstract sculptures of Alexander Calder rubbing shoulders with Max Ernst's surreal creations, and Henry Moore's dramatic Bronze Woman perched on a small hill, with the Oresund and distant Sweden providing a stunning backdrop.
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