2026Landesgalerie Niederosterreich - Modern Architecture in Austria - Set

Architecture and art

This year’s design in the “Modern architecture in Austria” series features an innovative architectural gem in the form of the Landesgalerie Niederösterreich (regional gallery of Lower Austria).

The Landesgalerie Niederösterreich is part of the Krems Art Mile ensemble. Thanks to its location in Krems an der Donau, at the entrance to the UNESCO Wachau Cultural Landscape world heritage site, it forms an interface between the old town and the mighty river. The gallery houses art treasures belonging to the federal province of Lower Austria and is a place where Austrian artists are represented, although projects by international artists are also exhibited. The art collection comprises around 100,000 objects, with a particular focus on art from the 19th century through to contemporary works.

The spectacular building was built in 2016 to plans by the architectural firm marte.marte architects from Vorarlberg. In their design, the architects Bernhard and Stefan Marte combined the traditional with the modern. The building impresses with its dynamic spiral form: a cube that is rotating upon itself and tapers towards the top. It is to this rotation and its façade of matte silver-grey zinc tiles, which are reminiscent of sequins, that the museum owes its nickname “the dancer from Krems”. Whichever angle you view it from, you get a different view. Wide arching windows on the ground floor ensure plenty of light, while after ascending four floors you can go out onto the terrace, where you get a wonderful view over the town of Stein and across the Danube to Göttweig Abbey. The walls inside the building are also curved, thereby retaining the dynamic sense of space.