The Places feature forms a selective and subjective Baedeker of hidden cultural history.
Italy
Vittoriale degli italiani, Lake Garda – Gabriele d’Annunzio
Miramare, Trieste – various doomed Habsburgs
Grand Hotel et des Palmes, Palermo – Richard Wagner, Raymond Roussel
Casa Grande, Capri – Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach
A Turin Trinity – Friedrich Nietzsche, Carlo Mollino, Satan
France
Place Vendôme, Paris – Countess de Castiglione
Palais Rose, Le Vésinet – Robert de Montesquiou, Marchesa Casati
Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris – Stravinsky, of course, and some surprises
Chez Pierre Molinier (and Place Pierre Molinier), Bordeaux
Portugal
Quinta da Regaleira, Sintra – António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro
Germany
Schleißheim, Munich – Alastair, Alain Resnais
Nollendorfplatz, Berlin – Expressionists, leather queens and the birth of arthouse cinema
Aleister Crowley’s Berlin – various sites associated with the Great Beast
Architektenhaus, Berlin – site of the “Memorial Service for Fallen Poets”, a major pre-Dada event
Muskauer Park, Saxony/Poland – Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau
Austria
Schloss Zwickledt, home of illustrator Alfred Kubin
Hermesvilla, Empress Sissi’s hideaway on the outskirts of Vienna
Czech Republic
(a bit of) Gustav Meyrink’s Prague – three stations in the writer’s early life
United Kingdom
Under the Hill, Wotton under Edge – More Adey
A late winter trilogy:
Clifton, Bristol – Montague Summers
Tredegar House, Newport – Evan Morgan
Tenby – Johns Augustus and Gwen, Nina Hamnett
Nevill Holt – birthplace and childhood home of Nancy Cunard
Lamorna – Ithell Colquhoun
Ireland
Phoenix Park, Dublin – Antonin Artaud
Greece
Isadora and Raymond Duncan Dance Research Center, Athens
Sissi and Fanny’s Corfu, in the footsteps of the empress and the countess
Malaysia
The Astana, Kuching – Sylvia Brooke
United States
1466 N Kings Road, Los Angeles – Maya Deren
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You might also be interested in the following city guides:
London part 1 | part 2 | part 3
Berlin part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4
Strange Flowers 