Sixteen culture capitals
Sixteen cities that
programme the world.
Every city keeps its own hours. Vienna starts at seven in a coat and tie, Berlin at midnight in whatever you slept in, Tokyo sells out in ninety seconds. Sixteen portraits with the houses that matter.
The map
Where the programme is
Tap a city for its culture index, the number of venues in the guide and the way in.
86Germany
Berlin
Three opera houses, five museums on one island and a club that never asks the time
85United Kingdom
London
The greatest free collections on earth and the most expensive tickets in Europe
85United States
New York
Broadway, the Met and a downtown that reinvents the rules every decade
85Japan
Tokyo
Kabuki in the afternoon, teamLab after dark and jazz rooms the size of a lift
85South Korea
Seoul
Palace courtyards, a state museum the size of an airport and an art fair that moved the market east
84Austria
Vienna
Standing room at the State Opera for the price of a coffee
83Spain
Barcelona
Modernisme as a city plan, Miró on a hill and electronic music as an export
83Mexico
Mexico City
The best anthropology museum on earth, murals on government walls and galleries in Art Deco houses
82France
Paris
The museum as a state religion, and an opera house built to be looked at
82Italy
Milan
La Scala, a Last Supper you need to book months ahead and design week
81Netherlands
Amsterdam
Rembrandt and Van Gogh in one square, and a club culture with its own night mayor
80Portugal
Lisbon
A private collection worth a detour, a power station full of art and fado in a back room
80United Kingdom
Edinburgh
For one month a year the largest arts festival on earth, and free national galleries all the others
79United States
Los Angeles
A Gehry concert hall, a hilltop museum that costs nothing and an amphitheatre under the stars
79Denmark
Copenhagen
An opera house given to the city, a museum in a garden by the sea and design as a civic habit
78Italy
Venice
A biennale city where the exhibition is the street plan
How we score
The culture index explained
Eight measures, weighted: museums, stage and music count double, the rest once.
- Museums
- Depth and breadth of the permanent collections, not the number of buildings.
- Stage
- Opera, ballet and theatre: how much is programmed and at what level.
- Music
- Classical halls and live rooms together, from the philharmonic to the basement.
- Now
- Galleries, kunsthalles and project spaces showing work made now.
- Festivals
- How much of the year the city gives over to a programme of its own.
- Night
- What is still happening after midnight, and whether it is any good.
- Value
- What an evening costs against what you get for it.
- Access
- Opening hours, ticket availability and how easy the city is without local knowledge.