Horta Museum — Attraction in Saint-Gilles - Sint-Gillis

If you love Art Nouveau you will be blown away by Horta Museum . The museum is actually Horta's restored house plus Horta's restored workshop next door plus Horta's restored garden.

The museum does a very good job, though film, of showing you Horta's influence in Art Nouveau and of showing you what all went into the (ongoing) restoration project.

I am giving it four stars because the museum allows no photography whatsoever. I thought this was because they wanted visitors to buy the books from their bookstore (which is pretty extensive by-the-way) . The bookstore carries thick, big, coffee table books about Horta and Art Nouveau. The prices are reasonable but these a books people may not wish to carry around on a day or touristing because many are literally too large to fit in museum lockers.

So the bookstore also has a small guidebook for a reasonable price. And it is a good guidebook I would recommend. But I can tell you it does not capture ALL the images I would have captured had I been allowed to take photos. The details in this house are amazing from the doorknobs to the window hinges. The guidebook does not capture all an individual tourist would capture with his/her own camera.

I also give four stars because there is no audio tour or online tour guide (because they won't let you bring in your mobile so they can't have an online tour guide). This surprised me because an 8 minute walk away is Hannon House and their online tour with audio was excellent.

Instead the Horta Museum gives you a little pamphlet with writing that is rather small and information I found a bit paltry.

It would be worth it to pay $20(US) on Amazon for the book by Daniele Schaub and Françoise Dierkens titled "Horta Museum" to read BEFORE you visit the museum. You will get a lot more out of your visit.

Also, DO NOT BUY tickets to the Horta Museum from the Horta Museum website. Instead buy the Art Nouveau Pass which allows you to visit THREE Art Nouveau sites from a list of 10. That way you can visit the Horta Museum AND Hannon House (8 minute walk away) on the same ticket.

The Art Nouveau Pass can be purchased at the tourist office located inside the City Hall at The Grand Place in the center of Brussels. You can buy the Art Nouveau Pass online from GetYourGuide but then you still have to retrieve the actual pass from the...

This place is stunning and as beautiful a building as any in Brussels. Its a good historical space. If you don't care about the history of the space beyond 10-15 minutes of knowledge and beauty intake then this is not worth your time. They have a strict anti photos policy (I didn't text it by trying to sneak photos or anything but they ask that you put phone in a locker) I get that the people who run the space have a different agenda and probably find the picture taking annoying as they probably have a history and design background. But some patrons really do enjoy the photography. Hotel solvay close by tries to find a medium ground of asking that you only photograph last 10 minutes of visit. Which is fine. It respects both points of view.

I regret giving my money to a space that thinks close minded about tourism. Please don't go if you enjoy photography at all. If you don't like close minded tourism please don't go as well. I doubt it matters but I left after 10 minutes quick tour. Mostly it was out of feeling the unreasonable request made the experience annoying. I'll suggest to my friends not to go. Staff was fine and respectful. Just a very rigid and silly policy. I wish I had just asked for my money back when they asked for my phone but I thought that would be too rude and why not give boring a shot. Wrong boring history is boring.

I gave it 2 stars just because the space is so stunning. Also they have good wi-fi access so if you decide to end your visit early it's easy to look up something more worth your time. I took it down to one star in attempt to anchor their stars aggregate but my honest opinion is a 4/5 for the space and a negative 4 for policy.

Ps I don't do this for Instagram or tik Tok bs I just genuinely enjoy pictures of beautiful things as it adds to memories. Below are 3 mediocre photos from the outside of building and the gift shop which was ok. They didn't seem to have a good reasonably priced book to access either as a substitute. Something got 50-60 euro was nice. $15 was old and...

I recently visited the museum. I first went there spontaneously and saw, that you need a reservation, i opened the official website and luckily i found a free spot some days later. I tried to reserve it immediately, it didn‘t work, it either froze or didn‘t accept the payment. I tried again with a different browser, in the end i found out, my credit card company deemed the website not safe enough (even if i authorized the payment in the banking app). After trying for 15 minutes in the cold rain with all the technical knowledge of being young, i gave up and asked the door opener employee for help. My french is not perfect, but i have been mistaken for a native speaker before. I explained, that i have tried everything, and asked, if i could make my reservation inside and pay cash. The guy refused and was extremely unfriendly about it. I really do not understand this kind of behaviour. I did manage to reserve a ticket later with the credit card of my family back home, and did visit the horta house. Once i had entered the house, the experience was 5 stars… entering the house though, they are being incredibly restrictive, even if it is only the neighbouring house, where the shop, cloakroom and toilets are located. This neighbouring house has an all modern interor, so you couldn‘t argue, it could be damaged by too much weight or too many people breathing. Ununderstandibly, they let even people with reservations wait outside in the cold rain. I am writing this one star review because i would wish future visitors a nicer experience. It is a pity, photographs are not allowed inside - because at the same time the post card collection is not very good… Once you are inside, it is great on every scale and you can deepen your knowledge a lot about hortas life and art and art nouveau in general if you want - or you can only admire the wonderfully restored rooms of this...