Musée Horta, detail of the ironwork bannisters

The home and studio of the great maestro of Art Nouveau architecture, Victor Horta, serves as a master-class in the form (For further details see Musée Horta, Brussels).

Designed by Victor Horta in 1893–5, this is considered the first Art Nouveau house. Up to this point, the well-to-do who commissioned new private mansions in the mushrooming Belgian suburbs adopted any style going: Moorish, Medieval, Tuscan, whatever. Horta extrapolated from this “eclectic” style to evolve something more integrated and considered. The private mansion of a bachelor engineer, Hôtel Tassel was carefully tailored to all aspects of his lifestyle, but this individualized approach also made it less adaptable for subsequent owners.

Behind a façade combining geometric shapes with dreamy Art Nouveau murals lies the home of little-known painter Paul Cauchie (1875–1952).

Art Nouveau tended toward excess, and this accusation might certainly be levelled at this house – all loops and curves, with a circular picture window on the top floor. It was designed for painter Saint-Cyr in 1900.

Swathes of Art Nouveau mansions were cleared from Brussels when the style fell from favour. Hôtel Hannon, built in 1902, is a rarity because some of the internal decorations have survived – and also because the public can gain access to the interior.

The artist Albert Ciamberlani (1864–1956) was one of those responsible for the huge mural in the triumphal colonnade of the Cinquantenaire building. He employed Paul Hankar (1859–1901), a key Art Nouveau architect, to build his house and studio in 1897. The façade combines iron, stone and brick for a highly individual decorative effect.

Musée des Instruments de Musique

Art Nouveau was also called “Style Liberty”, after the famous London store. Brussels’ “Old England” store was named to echo this vogue. The building houses the Museum of Musical Instruments.

Victor Horta designed the Magasins Waucquez, a textile shop, in 1903. Rescued in the 1970s, it has found new life as the famous comic-strip museum (For further details see Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée).

This famous restaurant and drinking palace opposite the Bourse dates from 1903, and still powerfully evokes the era in which it was created. The interior is rich in Art Nouveau detail, seen in the stained glass, mirrors, lamp fittings and furniture (For further details see Falstaff).

The 33-year-old Victor Horta was still fairly unknown when he was commissioned to design this house by the industrialist Ernest Solvay. Its free-flowing form, with swirling wrought iron and a remarkably fluid use of stonework, established Horta as a master of the Art Nouveau style.