Recently I have had the opportunity to spend a few days in Brussels, capital of Belgium and the administrative centre of the European Union. The European capital is mostly famous for its importance to the EU, its chocolates and see sights like the huge Atomium or Manneken Pis yet has not fully used its importance and reference for Art Nouveau in order to promote itself.
The Art Nouveau movement represents a period when the bourgeoisie decided to created a new philosophy and art which could be showed as part of their way of thinking and as exclusive and expensive as any other form of art consumed by those who had power and money. The idea was to create buildings, furniture, jewellery and silver objects to their own class which today is perceived as a transition from neoclassicism to modernism. And Brussels offer an incredible opportunity to experience this period for free. During a short walk around the city you can be surprised by buildings, windows and decoration from the end of the 19th century beginning of the 20th everywhere. The city offer the best of Art Nouveau taking you back to the begging of the past century.
In 2000 the Unesco recognized in Belgium 4 houses by Victor Horta, one of the biggest names in Art Nouveau, as a World Heritage which were described as “works of human creative genius” that are “outstanding examples of Art Nouveau architecture brilliantly illustrating the transition from the 19th to the 20th century in art, thought, and society.
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