Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is as much a work of art as anything it contains. Frank Gehry's building of rippling titanium, limestone and glass opened on the bank of the Nervión river in nineteen ninety seven and turned a tired industrial city into a place people cross continents to see. Its curves catch the light differently every hour, and the terraces around it hold a small sculpture park of their own: Jeff Koons's flower covered Puppy at the door, Louise Bourgeois's giant spider by the river, Anish Kapoor's tower of mirrored spheres, Koons's balloon Tulips, and a pool that fills with fog and flame.

Inside, a fifty metre atrium leads to about twenty galleries on three levels. The ground floor holds the building's greatest permanent work, Richard Serra's The Matter of Time, eight enormous curved steel sculptures that you walk through. The upper floors show changing selections from the museum's own collection of post war and contemporary art, works from the Guggenheim collections in New York and Venice, and large temporary exhibitions that are often the main reason for a visit. Expect abstract expressionism, Basque and Spanish art since the nineteen fifties, and major installations.

A first visit takes two to three hours. Start outside, circle the building fully before you go in, then head straight for the Serra gallery before the crowds arrive. The museum is one of three Guggenheim museums, part of a foundation based in New York, and it is run in partnership with the Basque government, which owns the building and the collection.