National Gallery of Victoria (NGV International)

NGV International occupies a fortress-like bluestone building on St Kilda Road in Southbank, designed by Roy Grounds and opened in 1968, and holds Victoria's international art collection spanning European old masters, decorative arts, fashion, and contemporary works. Visitors enter beneath Leonard French's stained-glass ceiling in the Great Hall and pass the building's signature water-wall entrance, a sheet of water running down the facade's glass front that has become one of the gallery's most photographed features. Permanent collection galleries occupy two levels around a central courtyard, with rotating major exhibitions -- often ticketed and drawing international loan works -- staged in dedicated spaces on the ground floor. A visit to the permanent collection alone takes about two hours; a major ticketed exhibition adds another hour or more, and combining both can fill half a day. The gallery is busiest on weekends and during school holidays, particularly when a major ticketed exhibition is showing, and quietest on weekday mornings shortly after the 10AM opening. Beyond the galleries, the building itself rewards a slow walk -- the moat and water-wall at the entrance, the stained-glass ceiling in the Great Hall, and the sculpture garden are worth as much attention as the artworks on the walls.