building by Horta – Hôtel Tassel
Victor Horta is to Brussels what Gaudí is to Barcelona, a pioneer in architecture. His Art Nouveau designs can be found throughout the city. The Hôtel Tassel is considered the first Art Nouveau building worldwide, commissioned 1893.
Hôtel Solvay is another of his pieces. Both are not open for visitors, so the outside view is the only one to admire.
here’s another one – Hôtel Solvay
wooden door
The Horta Museum is open to the public and shows his life and the objects he liked to surround himself with. The BOZAR museum is another of his works and can be admired along with the artworks inside the museum.
An Art Nouveau building not by Horta is the former department store by Paul Saintenoy, now home to the Muziekinstrumentenmuseum (Museum of Music Instruments) and many peculiar instruments. My favorite: the floor dedicated to keyboard instruments. Definitely worth a visit. The top floor houses a restaurant with a stellar view over the city.
beautiful building houses the Museum of Musical Instruments
old jukebox
duck trumpets
high-rise pianos
inside the museum
view from outside the museum
The passages of the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert are on the tentative list of the Unesco World Heritage Sites. Here is where the brotheres Lumière (from Lyon) showed their first moving pictures.
Galeries Royales St. Hubert with Chinese Lampions
Laeken lies in the northern part of Brussels, its cemetery is right next to the Church of Our Lady Laeken. You can find an original statue of le Penseur by Rodin in there! Another interesting sight to visit is the large crypt underneath the cemetery. The glass brick windows in the ceiling of the crypt let enough light through that it is rather well-lit and not at all shady down there.
Laeken Cemetery underground
February 24th – 27th 2018