Victor Horta built this house between 1895 and 1898 for Edmond van Eetvelde, a senior official who ran the affairs of King Leopold II's Congo Free State from Brussels, and it is impossible now to look at it without holding both of those facts at once: one of the most daring houses of the Art Nouveau age, paid for in a world shaped by the brutal exploitation of the Congo. Hôtel van Eetvelde stands on the Avenue Palmerston near the Square Ambiorix, in the European quarter, and with three other Horta houses it was inscribed in 2000 as the Major Town Houses of the Architect Victor Horta.
What made Horta radical was his use of iron and glass in a private home. At van Eetvelde he built a central octagonal hall lit from above by a glass dome, with slender iron columns branching like plant stems and mosaics and stained glass in greens and golds. The façade is more restrained than the interior, using exposed metal in a way that shocked many contemporaries. Interior visits are limited and usually need booking, so check before you plan around it.
Brussels is a hard city on a motorcycle. Traffic is dense, the tunnels and boulevards are confusing, trams have priority and cobblestones turn treacherous in the rain. The city has a low emission zone that does cover motorcycles, so check the rules for your bike's age and standard before you arrive. Speed limits are low across the region, and enforcement is real. Parking a bike on the pavement is not generally tolerated, but designated motorcycle spaces exist.
The good news is how quickly you can escape. The Sonian Forest, a vast beech wood, begins on the south-eastern edge of the city, and beyond it the roads of Walloon Brabant roll through farmland to Waterloo and the battlefield of 1815. Leuven, with its great Beguinage and university, is half an hour east.
The neighbourhood around the Square Ambiorix and the nearby Square Marie-Louise is full of other Art Nouveau façades, including Gustave Strauven's narrow, flamboyant Maison Saint-Cyr, and they deserve a slow hour on foot. Afterwards, frites from a stand and a Belgian beer in a café make a fair consolation for the traffic.