Horta Museum

Horta built himself a house at 25 rue Américaine in 1898, then in 1901 bought the plot next door and built a studio, later merging the two behind a single street presentation while keeping the studio's own entrance. He tested his ideas on his own money before offering them to clients: the stair hall rises through the full height of the house lit from a glazed roof, its walls doubled in mirror so the daylight bounces rather than simply falling, and every hinge, radiator grille and door handle was drawn by Horta himself. He lived and worked here until financial difficulty after the First World War forced him to sell in 1919. The house became a museum in 1969, was restored between 2010 and 2013, and was inscribed by UNESCO in 2000 with Hôtel Tassel, Hôtel Solvay and Hôtel van Eetvelde as the "Major Town Houses of Victor Horta".