Solvay House
Architect: Victor Horta - 1895/1898
This luxury townhouse was built by Victor Horta in 1894 for the son of captain of industry Ernest Solvay. The architect was given “carte blanche” and designed the interior and the furniture down to the smallest detail. On the façade, two symmetric bow windows surmounted by balconies are seen to protrude across two floors. Indoors it is a visual extravaganza, with the sheer range of red-orange hues on offer only acting to underpin the atmosphere of luxury and comfort. A must-see building.
Please note : Children under 12 years of age are not admitted to the guided tours.
Solvay House
Museum Horta
The Horta Museum is housed in the house and studio of the architect Victor Horta (1861-1947). Both buildings were built from 1898 to 1901 and are typical of the height of Art Nouveau. The interior of the house has been largely preserved: mosaics, stained-glass windows, furniture, wall paintings form a harmonious whole that shows subtlety down to the smallest detail. The museum is also a centre for research on Victor Horta and Art Nouveau. The architect's personal archive, a collection of plans of his buildings and the library are accessible to the public by appointment. Reservation of a time slot online is mandatory. Last access at 16:45.
Museum Horta
The Cauchie House
The Cauchie House is one of the most exceptional Art Nouveau masterpieces in Brussels. Built in 1905, it was originally the home to Paul Cauchie and Caroline Voet, a couple of artists and decorators. The majestic sgraffito on the façade and the opulent decorations of the bel-étage served as a manifesto for their artistic skills. We invite you to join us for a guided tour to discover its history and unique artworks.
Open on the first weekend & the third Saturday of the month.
Individual guided tours, group guided tours, private and corporate events.
The Cauchie House
Tassel House
This building is considered the founding work of Art Nouveau in Brussels. It was designed in 1893 by master architect Victor Horta, commissioned by its owner Emile Tassel, a professor at the ULB and a Freemason, like Horta. A house designed to accommodate a bachelor living with his grandmother, Tassel wanted to be able to receive his friends and continue his scientific work. The principal elements of Art Nouveau are used here: apparent metal structure, integration of the decoration into the structure, large amounts of natural light, etc.
Tassel House
MIM - Musical Instruments Museum (MRAH)
As soon as it opened at the end of the 19th century, the luxurious Old England department store earned an excellent reputation for its highly distinctive building. The entrance to the building is a jewel of the Art Nouveau style, while the rest is in perfect harmony with the neoclassical ensemble on the Place Royale, and just around the corner from the Grand-Place and Central Station, no less!
With a wealth of some 9.000 instruments, some 1.200 of which are on permanent exhibit, the museum's reputation is mainly built on its extraordinary collections.
Once inside, you'll embark on a true tour of the musical world. After your visit, the instruments and their history will no longer hold any secrets: from the viola da gamba from the Court of Brussels to the 20th century theremin, and even including the African kora!
The mim is nothing other than a place to experience music. A visitor's guidance system allows you to explore the thematic tours to the tune of the melodious sound of the instruments presented.
A program packed with concerts, demonstrations and workshops for the young and the not so young makes the mim experience even better.
The mim has its own concert hall, specialized library, museum shop, workshop for restauration and conservation of musical instruments and is crowned by a restaurant with panoramic view over Brussels.
MIM - Musical Instruments Museum (MRAH)
Autrique House
Maison Autrique is the very first striking building Victor Horta designed. It was built in 1893 and it's a major part of Brussels' architectural patrimonium. It underwent an exemplary restoration and is now open to the public. This house is an important Art Nouveau touchstone: we can already see elements that form a part of the continual explorations of the architect. It's interior division is full of surprises: François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters have staged an original scenography, from the cellar to the attic. The house has thus become a sort of tribute to Brussels' private architecture, while at the same time tickling the imagination. The house hosts intimate concerts, temporary exhibitions and workshops for children.
Autrique House
Comic Strip Museum (Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée)
An accomplished attraction located in the heart of Brussels, the Belgian Comic Strip Center has been honouring the creators and heroes of the 9th Art for more than 25 years.
The regularly renewed permanent exhibitions and a diversified programme of temporary exhibitions enable visitors to discover the countless aspects of comics art. Tintin and the Smurfs lead the way towards further adventures, an encounter with a world where creativity has no limits.
Enhanced by an exceptional Art Nouveau home designed by Victor Horta, the Belgian Comic Strip Center is just as much a tribute to the pioneers as a glimpse of contemporary comics art.
Open every day (7/7) in July and August and during Belgian school holidays.
Comic Strip Museum (Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée)
Max Hallet House
House dating from 1904, built according to the plans of V. Horta and offering a symphony of colours, whorls and lights to lift the heart and please the eyes. The lawyer Max Hallet had it built to receive his friends and clients in a magnificent setting. Victor Horta built it in the image of its occupant, laying out rooms for living and areas for receiving visitors.
Max Hallet House
Foundation Frison Horta
RESTORATION. PRESERVATION. SHARING.
Foundation Frison Horta is a cultural institution and centre for art. It’s a living museum and an organic cultural platform that conveys the story of Brussels’ heritage to a global audience. It is a historical landmark which showcases the work of Horta with original furniture, Art Deco, murals and frescoes. It engages with multidisciplinary institutions and bodies in an artistic dialogue on preserving, restoring and sharing the history and heritage of Art Nouveau while acting as a cultural bridge between east and west that fosters greater understanding and appreciation of the rich cultural traditions of India in Europe and vice versa.
The foundation sits in the middle of Rue Lebeau and was built in 1894 for Georges Frison, a renowned lawyer. It sits among Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Gothic mansions, looking like a Neo- Renaissance turret. It is a house of nature and light with murals and frescoes of flora and fauna that engulf the whole house.
It shows a fascinating play between the conventional Brussels private house and the bold and elegant style of Victor Horta.
The house stands out in a discreet way, far from extravagant. Everything is subtle, with the play of blue and white stones.
Guided visit by appointment only
Entry Fee: 35 Euros (Visit+Exposition)
Foundation Frison Horta
Van Eetvelde Hotel & LAB·An
According to Horta himself, the plans for this house, conceived in 1895, were the most audacious he ever drew. And he did so for a prominent figure, as the client, Baron Edmond van Eetvelde, was the Secretary General of the Independent State of Congo - in reality the unofficial 'Minister of the Congo' - and, therefore, a very close ally of King Leopold II.
The future owner asked the architect for a house 'for his family', but with as large a living room and dining room as possible, given his frequent social engagements.
The house is unusual in that it is flanked by two other buildings: a building to the left of it, which was intended to serve both as an extension to the original house and as a rental house and a building to the right of it, a small annex to the main house.
Van Eetvelde Hotel & LAB·An
Hannon House
The Maison Hannon, on the corner of Avenue Brugmann and Avenue de la Jonction, was built in 1902, at the request of the couple Marie and Édouard Hannon, by their friend, the architect Jules Brunfaut. Conceived as a symbolist and dreamlike universe, the house is one of the masterpieces of art nouveau in Brussels, a union of Belgian and French art of the time.
Jules Brunfaut, unfamiliar with the new style, was inspired by other architects' houses, such as those of Victor Horta (personal house, Tassel and Wessinger hotels), Ernest Blérot (personal house, now destroyed) and Octave Van Rysselbeghe and Henry Van de Velde (Otlet hotel).
Combining the beaux-arts style with that of modernity, or art nouveau at that period, the Maison Hannon is a singular work, an intimate and personal house, bringing together the tastes and passions of its commissioners.
The Maison Hannon will open its doors to the public on June 1, 2023, as a house museum.
Hannon House
Le Magasin Wolfers Frères - Musée Art & Histoire
Le Magasin Wolfers Frères - Musée Art & Histoire
Musée Fin-de-Siècle Museum
CLOSED AS FROM 3 APRIL DUE TO RENOVATION WORKS
The Fin-de-Siècle Museum is dedicated to the 1900s, when Brussels, the capital of Europe, was a unique artistic crossroads and the capital of Art Nouveau. This sanctuary of cultural history hosts paintings, drawings, watercolours, prints, sculptures, photographs, films, models and decorative objets d'art.
Famous visual artists like Constantin Meunier, James Ensor, Henri Evenepoel, Fernand Khnopff, Léon Spilliaert and Georges Minne testify to the effervescent activity of this period, reflected also in all other creative fields: literature, opera, music, architecture, photography and poetry (Maurice Maeterlinck, Emile Verhaeren, Octave Maus, Victor Horta, Henry Van de Velde, Maurice Kufferath, Guillaume Lekeu and others).
Located at the heart of Brussels, where between 1884 and 1914 the exhibitions of Les XX and La Libre Esthétique made the city one of the artistic capitals of the late nineteenth century, this museum is distinguished by its multidisciplinary nature, through a partnership formed with the Royal Library, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, the Royal Museums of Art and History, Cinematek, the Bibliotheca Wittockiana, the King Baudouin Foundation and the Brussels Capital Region for housing the Gillion Crowet collection, which is one of the museum's highlights.
Musée Fin-de-Siècle Museum