WHS' in Brussels

Like i mentioned in the previous post, i've visited a few unesco sites these holidays, 8 of them were in Belgium. The city of Brussels has 3 classified places, the Grand Place, the Stoclet House and Major Town Houses of the Architect Victor Horta. Of course i've been to the Grand Place and i've visited the Victor Horta Museum, which is really great! I didn't get to visit the Stoclet House but looking at the postcard, it doesn't seem that interresting.

Victor, Baron Horta (6 January 1861 - 9 September 1947) was a Belgian architect and designer. John Julius Norwich described him as "undoubtedly the key European Art Nouveau architect." Indeed, Horta is one of the most important names in Art Nouveau architecture. Four of the buildings he designed have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Horta Museum is a museum dedicated to the life and work of the Belgian Art Nouveau architect Victor Horta and his time. The museum is housed in Horta's former house and atelier, Maison & Atelier Horta (1898), in the Brussels municipality of Saint-Gilles. In the splendid Art Nouveau interiors there is a permanent display of furniture, utensils and art objects designed by Horta and his contemporaries as well as documents related to his life and time. - in: wikipedia

When banker and art collector Adolphe Stoclet commissioned this house from one of the leading architects of the Vienna Secession movement, Josef Hoffmann, in 1905, he imposed neither aesthetic nor financial restrictions on the project. The house and garden were completed in 1911 and their austere geometry marked a turning point in Art Nouveau, foreshadowing Art Deco and the Modern Movement in architecture. Stoclet House is one of the most accomplished and homogenous buildings of the Vienna Secession, and features works by Koloman Moser and Gustav Klimt, embodying the aspiration of creating a ‘total work of art' (Gesamtkunstwerk). Bearing testimony to artistic renewal in European architecture, the house retains a high level of integrity, both externally and internally as it retains most of its original fixtures and furnishings. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1298

The mansion is still occupied by the Stoclet family. It is therefore not open to visitors. The palace was designated as a world heritage site by UNESCO in June 2009.