Art Nouveau Districts

First seen around the upper-class avenue Louise, the Art Nouveau style spread, between 1893 and 1911, to cover all of the newly-developed suburbs, then on the edge of the city.

Four tours are possible : The Cradle of Art Nouveau, Art Nouveau & Public Spaces in Schaerbeek, Saint- Gilles Art Nouveau and Art Nouveau in the Marolles.

The Cradle of Art Nouveau

This tour explores the southern suburb of Ixelles, referred to as the “cradle of Art Nouveau” where this distinctly decorative architectural style was first used. The tour starts with Horta’s “Art Nouveau manifesto” façade of the Tassel house and also covers the “geometric Art Nouveau” experiments of Paul Hankar, as well as the historical and social context of the style’s development

and current causes of concern for conservationists.

	Meeting point Corner of avenue Louise and rue du Bailli (1050 Bruxelles) >> View on the plan
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Art Nouveau and Public Spaces in Schaerbeek

The creation of the avenue Louis Bertrand in 1905 heralded a very high-quality urban development. Art Nouveau master-architects, such as Gustave Strauven, François Hemelsoet and Henri Jacobs, successfully challenged the conventional design of houses, apartment buildings and schools. The style became very widespread in this district, which retains much of its nineteenth-century architectural harmony.

Saint-Gilles Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau in the Marolles

The working-class Marolles district has always been a place that has welcomed new immigrants to Brussels and innovative social structures. It was also the site of the first struggle for popular representation in the planning process: in 1969 its residents staged the “Battle of the Marolles” to oppose wholesale demolition and to demand renovation of existing buildings instead. In the decades either side of 1900, two schools, a huge wine and spirits warehouse, Brussels’ first, phalanstery-like social housing and an artist’s studio and dwelling were built there in the Art Nouveau style.

Their facades display the interplay of shapes and materials to which this style owed its success.
This 2½-hour walking tour will show participants several beacons of Art Nouveau architecture in Brussels, now comprehensively restored, and will set them in the context of this working-class city-centre district.

	Meeting point Place Poelaert , in front of the Palais de Justice >> View on the plan
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