South & Gotland
Wanås
Eighty works in forty hectares of beech forest. Most of Europe has never heard of it.
Region
South & Gotland
Best season
May – Oct
Best for
Anyone who looks at things properly
About Wanås
A working estate in north-eastern Skåne where, since 1987, artists have been invited to make work directly in the beech woods around a medieval castle. Close to eighty permanent pieces now stand across forty hectares of forest and eighteenth-century farm buildings. It is the largest sculpture park in Sweden and almost unknown outside it.
Getting there
Roughly an hour and a half by road from Malmö, and about two hours from Copenhagen airport. There is no useful way to arrive without a car.
What to see and do in Wanås
Work made for the place it stands in
Nothing here was made elsewhere and shipped in. Artists come, look at the forest, and build into it — which is why the collection reads as part of the wood rather than an exhibition placed inside one.
The names, quietly
Yoko Ono, Jenny Holzer, Ann Hamilton, William Forsythe. Over three hundred artists have shown here across nearly four decades. None of it is announced at the gate.
Beech, in October
The park is a nature reserve of old beech and oak before it is anything else. The collection changes character completely between full summer canopy and bare autumn light.
Arrange My Trip
When to go to Wanås
Opening
May
New commissions go in and the beech comes into leaf. The indoor galleries run roughly March to December; the park itself is open year round.
Summer
June – August
Everything open, the temporary exhibitions at their fullest, and the forest at its densest.
Autumn
September – October
The one we would choose. Thin crowds, the beech turning, and low light coming sideways through the trees onto work that was built for it.
Wanås: common questions
Anything not answered here, ask us directly — we'd rather you did.
How long do we need at Wanås?
Half a day is the minimum and it will feel rushed. The park covers forty hectares of forest and the works are deliberately spread out, so seeing it properly is a long slow walk rather than a circuit. A full day, with lunch on site, is the honest answer — and if you are staying the night, the first hour after opening is when you will have most of it to yourself.
Is the castle open?
No. Wanås Castle is a private home and has been in the same family for generations, so there are no interior tours. It sits at the centre of the estate as a backdrop rather than an attraction, which most visitors find they do not mind at all.
Is it worth it in winter?
The sculpture park stays open through the winter and there is a particular austerity to the works in bare forest, but the indoor galleries and the programme largely shut down, and the days are short. We would send you in September or October instead, when the beech is turning and everything is still running.
Ready when you are
Travel to Wanås
Every journey we design starts with one conversation. Tell us roughly when you'd like to travel and who's coming, and we'll take it from there.
