Ahead of you is a stately white mansion with tall windows and a classic triangular gable, nestled right at the river’s edge-just look for the elegant building between the old stone bridge and the cathedral’s green domes.
Alright, dreamers and art-lovers, welcome to the former Kantonales Kulturzentrum Palais Besenval! Imagine, the year is 1990, and the doors you see before you are creaking open for the very first time as a cultural hotspot. You step in and the scent of fresh paint and possibility fills the air. This place wasn't always just a pretty face on the river-oh no, for a decade it was the heart and soul of art and creativity in Solothurn.
Inside, the ground floor buzzed with excitement as artists, poets, and dreamers mingled among paintings, sculptures, and sketches. The walls often echoed with laughter and the quiet hush of admiration from visitors exploring two grand exhibition rooms. Out back, the garden (maybe you can catch a peek from here) was once alive with summer art parties and open-air installations-sometimes it looked more like a magical forest than a city garden.
But this place was more than exhibitions; it was a bridge-connecting people from every corner of the canton and, thanks to grand ideas, even reaching far beyond. And sometimes, magic happened, like when the legendary Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s quirky doodles joined his sharp words for a spectacular show, or when Hermann Hesse’s friendship with painter Cuno Amiet inspired an entire exhibit-imagine art and literature swapping secrets across the room!
All great stories have a twist, and Palais Besenval’s came with a sigh and the shuffle of papers: in 2000, the government’s tight new budget forced the center to close its proud doors. Its last act? A haunting exhibition called “Totentanz”-the Dance of Death-reminding everyone that nothing lasts forever. But fear not: the spirit of the Palais lives on, as Solothurn’s cultural heart now beats at Waldegg Castle. For now, give the building a grateful nod-its walls could tell a thousand stories!
