This is a place that has been eluding me for sometime.

It is one of the four Major Town Houses of Victor Horta . And I have seen the exterior many times but can't seem to find anyway of getting inside which is where the real glory lies.

The only reports I have of visits to the interior are the review by Henry and Jessica Townsend who stumbled upon it when the door was open and were invited in.
I have tried waiting around outside (2 times) but as yet this has not been successful.

The only other thing I have found is this conference on Art Nouveau which had a tour of the inside, it took place in 2003, so I am a little late for that.

I am writing here (more in hope than expectation) that someone may have stumbled across something; a link or a contact that would know a way of visiting the interior. So if anyone has any additional information it would be greatly appreciated.

Gosh - that takes me back !! I lived in the Ixelles area and worked in Avenue Louise for 2 years - the heart of the Horta district but just took it all for granted! The ARAU Foundation runs Art nouveau tours in Brussels but I am not clear if they actually go inside the Tassel house or just view it from outside! Their Tours include one called the Cradle of Art Nouveau which is descibed as "The tour starts with Horta's "Art Nouveau manifesto" façade of the Tassel house." - which implies NOT.

As their specialism is this sort of thing I would send them an email explaining your interest and asking them for advice - they may know of some way or sometimes these things have "once per year" visit!
info@arau.org

Their web site is
http://www.arau.org/

I could be mistaken, but every region in Belgium has an "open monuments day". Brussels region does this as well and I seem to recall the hotel tassel opening it's doors for this occasion.

In Brussels, it's on September 20-21 this year (2008)

Ah thanks for this, unfortunatley it is a month to early for this years visit.

I am sure I will be back next year and I will see if I can time it better.

I'm not 100% sure what this tour entails, but maybe the years of waiting may be paying off as ARAU are organising special tours for Victor Horta's 150th birthday.

http://www.arau.org/en/t/totally-horta/8

Even if it doesn't get inside Hotel Tassel, it may be a great way of seeing more of his works.

---Edit, I just heard back and it the Van Eetvelde house that they visit along side, the Saint Ghislain School and Former "Magasins Waucquez" (now the comic museum) the Hotel's Tassel and Solvay are open during the Biennale Art Nouveau which it seems I somehow missed last year, the next one should be October 2014 apparently---

:(

It seems that you can now visit Hotel Solvay but it comes in at €40, making even the Tower of London look reasonably priced.

I'm tempted but it is exceptionally expensive and I don't really want to support this kind of pricing scheme. Maybe my mind will change, it is an exceptionally fine interior.

Here are the details if anyone is interested:
http://www.voiretdirebruxelles.be/events/exceptional-opening-of-three-art-nouveau-tow nhouses

40 EUR for 1 hour...
maybe you're guided around by the new Belgian king, or miss Belgium...

We visited Hotel Tassel in October last year (2015). Every two years there is an art nouveau biennale in Brussels including Hotel Tassel (at least in 2015). A ticket for one day costs EUR 25 and with this ticket you can visit as much sites as you like. However, the number of available places per site are limited & you have to register/book in advance on the Voir et Dire website (cf. the link above in Meltwaterfalls' message).

Hotel Solvay was also included but for this site you had to pay an extra fee on top of the EUR 25 (EUR 20 if I'm not mistaken).

Thanks for that Kbecq, I just saw there is a tour of Hotel Tassel in June, this could work very well. Thank you for flagging it up to me.

To Meltwaterfalls and others who might be interested:

The art nouveau biennale has become the Brussels Art Nouveau & Art Deco Festival (BANAD) and will be held every year in March as from 2017 (http://www.voiretdirebruxelles.be/events/banad-festival).

Don't know if Horta's major town houses will be included, but there is a good chance they will since this was the case the previous editions of the biennale.

Thanks for flagging that up Kbecq

Thanks to Astraftis on the WhatsApp chat for flagging this up, but there is a rare tour tour of Hotel Tassel on 03/08/2024

€20 and the details can be found here

Yes! And I just secured a spot on the first visit (at 10 in French). If some happens to be there, we could gladly meet!

In general, I can recommend subscribing to Explore Brussels newsletter.

Recapping:
* visits to hôtels Solvay and Van Eetvelde are by now more or less regular, even if not so frequent and with limited places. The former is private and managed through this site; the latter again thorugh Explore Brussels.
* for the hôtel Tassel, apart from exceptional visits like this one, your first bet are the heritage days (third weekend in September) or the Art Nouveau month (BANAD festival) in March.

And as for palais Stoclet... let's faithfully wait!

Booked 2 Tickets at Aug 03 - 11.30 (Eng). 7 left.