Horta () is a '' premetro'' (underground tram) station located under the Chaussée de Waterloo/Waterloosesteenweg in the Saint-Gilles municipality of

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, Belgium. The station is named after the

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

architect

Victor Horta Victor Pierre Horta (; Victor, Baron Horta after 1932; 6 January 1861 – 8 September 1947) was a Belgian architect and designer, and one of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement. He was a fervent admirer of the French architectural theoris ...

, who designed a number of significant buildings in the area. It opened on 3 December 1993. The station forms part of a southerly extension to the

North–South Axis The North–South Axis is a tram tunnel in Brussels, Belgium, which crosses the city centre from north to south between Brussels-North railway station and Albert premetro station. The first section of this tunnel was opened on 4 October 1976 be ...

, a tram tunnel crossing the

city centre A city centre, also known as an urban core, is the Commerce, commercial, Culture, cultural and often the historical, Politics, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely e ...

between

Brussels-North railway station Brussels-North railway station (; ) is one of the three major railway stations in Brussels, Belgium; the other two are Brussels Central Station, Brussels-Central and Brussels-South railway station, Brussels-South. Every regular domestic and i ...

and

Albert premetro station Albert (; ) is a '' premetro'' (underground tram) station located on the border between the municipalities of Saint-Gilles and Forest in Brussels, Belgium. The station is at the crossroad between the / on the Greater Ring and the /, between F ...

. The underground station serves the 4, 10 and 51 trams, while the 81 and 97 trams and 52 bus stop to the north-west around the /. In 2025, the line is scheduled to be converted to serve line 3 of the

Brussels Metro The Brussels Metro ( ; ) is a rapid transit system serving a large part of the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium. It consists of four conventional metro lines and three '' premetro'' lines. The metro-grade lines are M1, M2, M5, and M6 wi ...

, in preparation for which

third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a track (r ...

s were installed in 2021.

Location

The station is unusual in that it can only be reached from the eastern end, at the entrance on the Chaussée de Waterloo/Waterloosesteenweg, whereas no entrance was built leading to the /, which would have eased access to the

Municipal Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

. An underground car park occupies the space between the platforms and the small park above. This was previously the site of a nursery school, the ''École gardienne no. 1'', the municipality's first and biggest. Opened in 1864, it catered for 533 children in 10 classes, and had two playgrounds and a canteen. In 2023, a block of flats with cycle parking was being built over the entrance to the east of the Chaussée de Waterloo, on a corner plot that had been empty since the tunnel was dug. The project was abandoned, however, in 2024, due to water infiltrations. A "lighter" project, which will green the street corner, is in preparation.

Interior and art

Decorative ironwork and stained glass designed by

for the Maison du Peuple/Volkshuis and the Hôtel Aubecq, which were demolished in the 1950s and 1960s respectively, is on display in the station. The interior tilework is grey. The station is a favourite hangout for adolescents, and STIB/MIVB security officers, community wardens and police are often in attendance. On 22 January 2012, following the eviction of squatters from one of the technical rooms, the station suffered a graffiti attack of such scale (paint had been splashed carelessly all the way along the walls) that it was closed for 24 hours while it was cleaned.

References

External links

*
STIB/MIVB official website
Brussels Metro stations Saint-Gilles, Belgium {{Brussels-metro-stub

Location

Interior and art

See also

References

External links