Updated February 9, 2021 by pierre

A new museum in Brussels: (Maison) Hôtel Solvay

Located at Brussels at number 224 of theavenue louise,  the Solvay hotel is installed in a XNUMXth century mansion restored and decorated in Art Nouveau style. The Solvay hotel retains all the charm of the residences of its time: original earthenware, exposed woodwork, calm and shaded interior patio.                             

The Hôtel Solvay, an Art Nouveau masterpiece in Brussels

It all started with the desire of the Solvay family, the kings of chemistry at the time, to have an extraordinary house, right in the capital. When crossing, the ground of the building made facing the main side of Avenue Louise, The Champs Elysées in Brussels, today in rather poor condition. On the upside, Horta had a unlimited budget. Time, of course, didn't matter. Begun in 1895, the building was only aended only in 1903. During this time, the architect had used seventeen species of wood and twenty-three types of marble. While the symmetrical facade may still appear understated, the same is not true of the four-story interiors. It was a winding fairyland, with a huge decorative canvas by Theo van Rysselberghe and iron ornaments everywhere. The spectacular does not exclude comfort, therefore modern. There was an elevator, a hatch (now missing) and air conditioning. 

In 1903, the house seemed the height of topicality. The essence of fashion is to go out of fashion. Art Nouveau was quickly forgotten. In the 1910s, the Stoclet Palace, built by the Austrian Josef Hoffmann in the Belgian capital, reduced the Solvay hotel to the status of an old moon. The decline has begun. He generally laughed when the Wittamer family bought the “noodle-style” building in 1957. He was actually supposed to build his moderate Valens home in a luxurious address. The decoration on the ground floor was then dismantled but not destroyed. Thirty-one years later, the building is listed. In 2003, after a complete restoration, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

The Solvay Hotel: A marvel of architecture and ingenuity

The career of Victor HortaMore began in the 1890s. Indeed, the architect quickly acquired notoriety for his architectural style, which would become an integral part of Art Nouveau in Belgium. He created many mansions that emphasize open plans, replacing partitions with simple posts to support the different floors and transparency to seek natural light with as much glass as possible. Aesthetically, it is based in particular on curved forms, a classic of Art Nouveau, which can be found both at Alphonse Mucha and at Hector Guimard, the architect of the Paris metro or at Castel Béranger. 

The Solvay hotel building itself is a textbook case. Symmetrical on the outside and very sober, it hides a multitude of interior decorations that give it a unique look. The four floors of the building are connected by a double staircase, above which stands a huge work by the pointillist painter Theo Van Rysselberghe of Reading im Park dating from 1902. The painting is set in an atmosphere of shades of green and orange. The metal beams and posts are visible, but they fit perfectly into the decoration of 17 wood species and 23 different marbles. Glass partitions and skylights provide transparency between rooms and let in daylight. 

The ergonomics of the building is also surprising. In addition to the presence of a Elevator and an old server, a sophisticated air conditioning system has kept the building at the right temperature in all seasons since 1903 and has produced no condensation. Finally, Horta's ingenuity is also expressed in his mastery of electricity, which complements outdoor lighting with chandeliers, sometimes to several tens of bulbs. 

Finally, the hotel has an annex, built at the same time as the main building by two other architects, which houses former stables. In the same style, they form the second facade of the building on the other side of the block, rue Lens. 

A Despised Legacy

Eight years of construction (1895-1903) and an unlimited budget, these are the conditions in which Victor Horta built the Solvay hotel. The architect also had very good relations with his sponsors, the extremely wealthy Solvay family, wealthy in the chemical industry. All in woodwork, metallic arabesques and glass spaces, the art-style building symbolizes, by its abundance, what the bourgeois families of the XNUMXth century wanted to show for themselves. The building that crosses the farm where it is located has undergone various restorations over time, although its style does not always correspond to the times. 

The first came when the main canopy was destroyed after a nearby V1 missile exploded in 1944. The second phase of rehabilitation took place when the Wittamer family acquired the hotel in 1957, under false fire. "There are articles where it was said that the Wittamers bought a style of 'noodles'," Alexandre Wittamer told RTBF. The family then set up their fashion company, Valens, there, including a workshop and a place to present their collections. The Wittamers took down most of the decorations on the ground floor, which was to be restored a few years later. The authorities became interested in it at the end of the 1988th century and the building was classified as a historic monument in 2003. In XNUMX, it has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

A fresh start: The Solvay Hotel becomes the Solvay Museum

Brussels intends to restore its letters of nobility to Art Nouveau with the reopening of this site. Long considered too opulent, too flashy and too old-fashioned, it is fast becoming the hallmark of the Belgian capital. 

Indeed, the Brussels Region financed the creation of the website and ticket office of the Hotel Solvay. Thanks to this contribution, the private visits to which the hotel was accustomed were replaced by guided tours for the general public on Thursdays and Saturdays since January 27, 2021. The hotel can now be visited for a a reservation via its site at a price of EUR 16.

You dream of visiting Brussels, the Hôtel Solvay, the ultimate hidden treasure of Art Nouveau waiting for you. So go to:

http://www.hotelsolvay.be for your reservation.

Hotel Solvay Address and prices visits

• Entry price 16 euros (12 euros if students under 26 or job seekers).
• Address Avenue Louise 22z 1050 Ixelles
• Telephone +32 2 640 56 45
• Email: info@hotelsolvay.be
  • http://www.hotelsolvay.be