Belgian Comic Strip Center
Victor Horta's 1906 iron-and-glass fabric warehouse, saved from ruin by Hergé and friends, now holds the full sweep of Belgian comics history.
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The building spent decades as a textile shop, fell derelict, and was nearly demolished before comics artists — including Hergé, Bob de Moor, and François Schuiten — campaigned to save it. Hergé himself redirected the project away from a personal tribute and insisted on honouring the entire Belgian comics industry, making the museum a collective act rather than one creator's monument.
What to look for
- Victor Horta's original 1906 Art Nouveau structure — iron columns and glass canopy designed for bolts of fabric, not display cases
- The Hergé connection: he was involved in the 1980 restoration plan yet pushed to sideline himself in favour of the broader industry
- Bob de Moor's founding role — Hergé's chief collaborator became the institution's first chairman in 1984
Accessible on foot from both Brussels-Central and Brussels-Congress railway stations; address is 20, rue des Sables/Zandstraat.
Belgian Comic Strip Center is one of 33 sights worth the detour in Brussels, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Brussels pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Brussels
- Manneken PisA 55.5 cm bronze boy that somehow became the face of an entire country — the joke is entirely intentional.
- Grand-PlaceEvery guildhall surrounding you was rebuilt from rubble — French artillery levelled the square in 1695, and the Town Hall tower survived only because it was the gunners' aiming point.
- AtomiumNine stainless-steel spheres arranged as an iron crystal blown up 165 billion times — built to headline a World's Fair and never taken down.
- Stoclet PalaceA UNESCO World Heritage house you can only see from the pavement — by design, and by the owner's choice.
- King Baudouin StadiumInaugurated for Belgium's 100th birthday in 1930, this 70,000-seat bowl on the Heysel Plateau hosted six European finals — and the night football changed forever.
- Cathedral of St. Michael and St. GudulaBelgium's national church began as a chapel on a trade-route crossroads in the 9th century — eleven centuries of building decisions are now stacked on a hill called "Mount of Sorrow."