From César Manrique's lava caves in Lanzarote to the Dalí museums of Catalonia, suggestions for your next cultural trip
Outside a sleepy village about 15 minutes from the UNESCO heritage site of Hildesheim and under an hour from the Documenta city of Kassel, Schloss Derneburg is a palimpsest of a thousand years, replete with cloister, fairy tale turrets, and a gothic revival knights hall. In 1974, it became the home of artist Georg Baselitz. The view the artist would take in between painting sessions in his studio is preserved, as are his sketches on the walls of the castle's former kitchens, where he would sculpt.
Since 2017, Derneburg has been the lead site of the Hall Art Foundation, helmed by the admired Anglo-American collectors Andy and Christine Hall. Its emphasis is on revolving exhibitions, with solo surveys to date including Isa Genzken, Antony Gormley, Candida Höfer, Hermann Nitsch and Julian Schnabel, usually drawing on the founders's formidable personal collection.
Derneburg's model is contemplative and un-showy, with an emphasis on deep engagement and slow, informed looking. In this respect, its relative isolation is a boon. On my visit, I remember being momentarily distracted from a rich display of Bethan Huws works by a chiming sound: it turned out not to be a mobile phone, but the sound of church bells, drifting in from the next village.