These seven museums have just been named the most beautiful in the world for 2025 These seven museums have just been named the most beautiful in the world for 2025

While many of us are more concerned with the artefacts and artworks on display inside, there’s no denying the world is full of truly spectacular museum buildings.

And now seven new openings and renovated structures have just been named among the most beautiful museums for 2025 by Prix Versailles.

Now in its 11th edition, Prix Versailles also names the most beautiful airports, hotels, shops and restaurants.

Jérôme Gouadain, Secretary General of the Prix Versailles, said, “The World’s Most Beautiful Museums List for 2025 provides an extraordinary and particularly remarkable survey of the latest museum constructions, representing both the exuberance of youthful creativity and the maturity of the skills that inspire these achievements and make them possible.

“By fostering their own special ambiance, tailored to each site’s specific mission, these places deliver singular experiences to their visitors, encouraging them to open their minds both outwards and inwards. Never before has the entire world exhibited such a clear need to recall how deeply rooted it is in free, united humanity.”

World’s most beautiful museums list 2025

Following on from an extensive restoration project led by Chatillon Architectes, Paris’ Grand Palais will once again open to the public in June 2025 in collaboration with Centre Pompidou.

The Centre Pompidou, which is closed until 2030, will present four exhibitions a year, including Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Pontus Hultén (6 June–4 January, 2026), and Art Brut. In the intimacy of a collection (6 June–21 September).

Part of the AYANA Bali hotel in Jimbaran Bay, SAKA Museum’s exhibitions showcase the island’s living traditions, including Nyepi, the Balinese Day of Silence.

The museum was selected for the Prix Versailles prize as it ’embodies the Balinese philosophy of Giri Segara, the sacred balance between mountain and sea, symbolising the interconnected forces of spiritual power and life’s continuous transformation’ through its sloping roof and reflecting pool.

Read next: Finding Bali’s true nature beyond the beach scene

Audeum, Seoul, South Korea

While Audeum is an audio museum, the architecture brings together far more elements than just sound. The façade makes use of a vertical array of bright aluminium pipes to make use of natural light and shadow while fragrant cypress wood is used in the entrance.

The museum’s collection includes a range of audio equipment from the last 250 years, including the Edison phonograph and the Western Electric loudspeaker, as well as more than 120,000 vinyls.

Read next: South Korea trip planner

Home to the world’s largest collection of Nordic Modernist art, Kunstsilo in Norway was once an industrial port granary. Transformed by Mestres Wåge Arquitectes, the three-storey building was selected as it ‘inspires a sense of grandeur and poetry, all amplified by the towering staircase, which provides for an ascension that lends itself wonderfully to meditation’.

Read next: Double bill: Ålesund & Bergen, Norway

Diriyah Art Futures, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Among the most exciting developments in the Middle East, Diriyah is home to the UNESCO World Heritage Site-listed At-Turaif, spectacular hotels and a number of museums and art galleries, the latest of which includes Diriyah Art Futures. The first museum on the Arabian Peninsula exclusively dedicated to digital art, the building was designed to merge traditional architecture and modern technologies.

Read next: Diriyah: Travel back in time, slow down in the present and look to the future

First opened in 1920, this museum dedicated to Northeast Ohio’s geological history was given a new lease of life by DLR Group.

The new building was inspired by the glaciers that carved the Great Lakes. Prix Versailles said of the building, “When architecture becomes an expression of the natural world, it fosters a sense of wonder and discovery. That primary mission of any museum is magnificently deployed here in Cleveland.”

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Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, USA

Open since 1931, Omaha’s Joslyn Art Museum is comprised of three parts: the Art Deco masterpiece Joslyn Building, the 1994 Walter & Suzanne Scott Pavilion, and now the Rhonda & Howard Hawks Pavilion. The latter, designed by Snøhetta, ‘seems to defy the ages’.

Read next: Is this the USA’s most underrated state? 5 reasons to travel to Nebraska