Brussels has declared 2023 the year of Art Nouveau. After all, it is 130 years since the Hotel Tassel (1893), designed by Victor Horta, was inaugurated, marking the beginning of this art and architectural movement. Throughout the year, various gems of Art Nouveau architecture will open their doors to the general public, and there will be exhibitions, lectures and workshops confirming Brussels as the epicentre of Art Nouveau.

Art Nouveau has been enjoying a real revival for the past ten years or so. The movement experienced a true, but short-lived, heyday around the turn of the last century (1890–1910). In the 1950s and 1960s, however, Art Nouveau went through a period of deep disapproval and neglect. The new generation of modernists rebelled against 19th-century architecture, and in Brussels – which found itself in a climate of renewal and redevelopment after the Second World War – this heritage began to be ruthlessly demolished under pressure from property speculation. In 1949, Victor Horta’s Hotel Aubecq on Avenue Louise was demolished, followed in 1965 by the Volkshuis, his absolute masterpiece from 1899. This demolition is still considered sacrilege.