3 Best Sights in Brussels, Belgium

This museum was originally an artist’s home. Sculptor Guillaume Charlier and his friend Henri Van Cutsem were avid art collectors and asked Victor Horta to convert two houses into one to contain their treasures. It’s an eclectic mix, with piles of decorative objects from the 18th to 20th centuries, an impressive collection of Belgian art, and Charlier’s own realistic works vying for attention.

Art Nouveau architect Paul Cauchie built this house for himself in 1905, using the facade as a virtual shop window for his sgraffito expertise. Sgraffito work begins with a light-color base layer; a darker color is added on top, and then, while the paint is still wet, etched with a design that allows the lighter color underneath to show through. Here, Cauchie covered the front with graceful, curving images of women playing lyres. The home’s interior, only open to the public on guided tours on Saturday (and the first Sunday of the month), is a wonderful example of the Art Nouveau aesthetic.

The first house designed in Brussels by the architect Victor Horta (he'd done others in Ghent by this time) was built in 1893 for a friend, Eugene Autrique. It was to have "not a single luxury," and became the first manor house built by Horta, marking his early explorations in Art Nouveau. At the time, Schaerbeek was mostly agrarian, best known for the small, sour cherries used to brew kriek beers—a state almost unimaginable given its current urban sprawl. Having undergone extensive renovation to return it to its original state, the house is now a museum on Horta's early days, and holds the odd exhibition.