In honour of #museumweek, BBC Culture rounds up stunning buildings around the world that house the treasures of civilisation.
Musee d’Orsay, France
Standing on the Left Bank of the Seine, this venerable Paris museum was opened in 1986 in a former Beaux-Arts railway station and hotel. The layout uses its previous incarnation to full effect – galleries cluster around the grand nave and light streams in through its sweeping glass roof. Conceived to bridge the gap between the collections of the Louvre Museum and the Pompidou Centre, it focuses on late 19th and early 20th Century art and houses the world’s largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings. (Credit: Daniella Nowitz/Corbis)
Guggenheim, Spain
During a period of city-wide regeneration in Bilbao in the late 1980s, the idea for the museum came about through a collaboration between Basque authorities and the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation. US/Canadian architect Frank Gehry won the design commission and the museum opened its doors in October 1997. The impressive building stands on the edge of the Nervión River in the old industrial heart of of the city, its glass and limestone structure clad in waves of titanium. It was an immediate sensation; among its fans, the architect Philip Johnson hailed it “the greatest building of our time”. (Credit: Art Kowalsky / Alamy Stock Photo)
Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Brazil
The museum was opened in 2002-3 and nicknamed ‘the eye’ as it resembles a giant human eye perched on a yellow pillar. The legendary Brazilian architect who designed it (and gave it his name) was a key figure in the modern movement; he was 95 when the building was completed. A 2,000 sq-ft museum space houses international art along with many of Niemeyer’s own works. (Credit: Chris Schmid Photography / Alamy Stock Photo)
British Museum, London
The architect Robert Smirke designed the core of the museum, which opened in 1852, in the neo-Classical style. The grand south entrance, with its impressive pediment and pillars, drew inspiration from ancient Greece. In 2000, Foster and Partners created a new Great Court, which, with its spectacular glass roof, transformed the museum’s inner courtyard into the largest covered space in Europe. (Credit: David Pearson / Alamy Stock Photo)
