The art offerings of the Nordics are well established: from the capitals’ gleaming national galleries to the scrappier artist-run spaces in less polished neighborhoods. But travel away from the established centers, and you will stumble upon some of the region’s most visually arresting art sites. In each of the following three art spaces – the Steilneset Memorial in Norway, Artipelag in the Stockholm archipelago and Copenhagen’s Cisternerne – a unique alchemy fuses the space with the unique landscape in which it sits. Together they yield something magical.

Copenhagen’s Cisternerne (The Cisterns) is in leafy Frederiksberg, across from the castle and deep beneath the lush green grass of Søndermarken Park. Here, only glimmers of daylight find their way into this gloomy and humid underground space, a former water reservoir.