About this place
Stretching some one hundred and thirty metres along the south bank of the Danube between the Nibelungen Bridge and the Brucknerhaus, the Lentos is a plain concrete cube wrapped in a skin of roughly eighteen hundred laminated glass panes. By day the facade shifts between transparent and mirror bright, catching the river and the sky; by night it becomes a glowing sculpture washed in blue, pink, and violet light. Opened in 2003 as the successor to the city's Neue Galerie, it takes its name from an ancient Celtic word for curved or flexible, thought to be the original name for Linz and a nod to the meandering bend of the Danube. Behind the glass lies one of Austria's most important collections of modern and contemporary art, thousands of paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and photographs, anchored by a foundation of works once handled by the Berlin art dealer Wolfgang Gurlitt.
Key facts
- 2003 year — The museum opened on the Danube riverfront as successor to the city's Neue Galerie
- 1800 glass panes — Laminated safety glass panels clad the facade and light it in shifting colours at night
- 130 metres — The length of the luminous glass block stretched along the south bank of the Danube
📍 Untere Donaulände 1, 4020, Linz