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Photo: Karl Stas, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Despite the misleading name, not an actual hotel, but a regular residential house designed by famous Art Nouveau architect Victor Horta for Belgian scientist and professor Emile Tassel. It is considered as the first true Art Nouveau building, and therefore a cornerstone for that architectural style, for which it was awarded the status in 2000. It is most notable for its highly innovative building plan and groundbreaking use of materials and decorations. The house consists of 3 different parts: two conventional parts constructed in brick and natural stone (one the side of the street and on the side of the garden) which were linked with a glass covered steel structure. It connects both parts, and contains staircases and landings that connect the different rooms and floors of the building. The glass roof allows natural light to enter into the center of the building, a feature that would become a characteristic for the Art Nouveau style, and developed further in the Innovation shopping center design. Horta succeeded in the integration of lavish decoration without masking the architectural structure as a whole. Hotel Tassel influenced French Art Nouveau architect Hector Guimard, who later developed his own interpretation of Horta's example. The building is used as a private office, but visits are possible on request.
The Hôtel Tassel, also known as the Tassel House, is a historic town house in Brussels, Belgium. It was designed by Victor Horta for the scientist and professor Emile Tassel, and built between 1892 and 1893, in Art Nouveau style. It is considered one of the first buildings in that style because of its highly innovative plan and its ground-breaking use of materials and decoration. It is located at 6, rue Paul-Emile Janson/Paul-Emile Jansonstraat, a few steps from the Avenue Louise/Louizalaan.
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Rome escape games with 2 adventures:
Hollywood Mystery: players are trapped inside the room of Marilyn Monroe, and need to discover the main culprit in the mysterious end of a beloved cultural icon before the cover-up.
The Lab: entangled in a race against time, players uncover the structure of DNA to stop the plans of dr. Doom to create a super race that will control the world.
Escape games just outside the inner city, with 3 available rooms:
Robbery of Manneken Pis: in this scenario, the city's iconic statue has been stolen, and players find themselves in the hideout of the thief, with 60 minutes to restore the statue before he returns.
Mystery at the Canal Bar: a Sherlock Holmes themed scenario, in which a fellow detective has gone missing in a shady bar near the city's canal after meeting with an informant, and players must unravel the mystery of his disappearance.
Intrusion at the Japanese Tower: the newest adventure, it is themed in an oriental style according to the Japanese Tower of Brussels.
The home of noted Belgian Art Nouveau architect and designer Victor Horta. Seeing where he lived and worked is a great way to get an introduction to the art nouveau style in Brussels. It is one of four Horta works to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It can be very busy on rainy Sundays and the queue is outside, so don't forget your umbrella.
A small museum dedicated to the work and life of Constantin Meunier, a Belgian painter and sculptor. He made important contributions to the development of modern art by elevating the image of the industrial worker, docker and miner to an icon of modernity. His work reflects the industrial, social and political developments of his day. The museum is housed in the last residence in which Meuneir lived and worked, a beautiful studio. Sheltering an extensive collection of over 700 works, the house was acquired by the Belgian government in 1936, and after a renovation of 3 years opened in 1939 to the public as a museum. Over 150 of his works are displayed there, the remainder in the Museum of the Turn of the Century.
The museum is housed in the villa purchased in 1928 by Dutch banker and patron David van Buuren, with an outdoor architecture typical of the Amsterdam School, and the indoor dectorations are characteristic art deco of the time. Van Buuren collected many rare items of furniture, carpets, stained-glass windows, sculptures, paintings (including many Flemish and Italian masters, and other pieces of art, which are still on display. The villa was turned into a museum in 1975 as requested by Alice van Buuren in her testament. The surrounding gardens, designed by landscape architet Jules Buyssens, are in perfect harmony with the art deco house. The 3 central parts are the picturesque garden, the labyrinth, and the garden of the heart. The picturesque garden in particular stands out, designed in the 1920s following the geometrical ideas of the art deco style. It is open to the public year round.
A white art deco church in the middle of a roundabout.