Former Wolfers Frères Store

Victor Horta's plans date from 1909. The building, put up on Rue d'Arenberg for the jewellery and goldsmith house Wolfers Frères, was inaugurated in November 1912; the client was the jeweller Philippe Wolfers. Besides the shop, the programme included goldsmith workshops, a factory, two administrative floors and, at the level of the loggia, the director's private apartment. Horta also designed the shop's mahogany furniture, which the London firm Sage made in 1912.

The Wolfers firm left the building in 1973. The furniture was dismantled in 1974, and the Wolfers family gave it in 1977 to the Royal Museums of Art and History. Drawings by Horta dated 1930 provided for an extension on Rue de la Montagne, which was never built.

The building has been altered several times, mostly inside. A decree of 1 October 1981 lists its façade and the main ground-floor shop as a monument.

The façade, 23 m high, has seven bays. The ground floor and mezzanine are faced in Swedish granite; four levels of large-block white stone rise above them, then a recessed floor lit by seven dormer windows. Horta plays on the contrast of materials and on offset axes: on the left, a convex bow window breaks the symmetry. Here he gives up exposed metal structure.

At street level the shop windows vary in height to follow the slope of the ground. The two-leaf entrance door is fitted with a wrought-iron grille whose upper part draws whiplash curves, and the shop's awning is worked by fine moulded metal rods. A large arched tympanum once carried the sign "Wolfers Frères". Above, three floors set out a rhythm of paired windows; the fourth is punctuated by columns with curved capitals that form a gallery with panelled balconies.

The irregular plan is arranged on either side of two inner courtyards, a solution that Philippe Wolfers advocated.

The shop's original furniture has been on show since 2017 in a room of the Art & History Museum, in the Cinquantenaire. The room resembles the space Horta designed in shape and size, and the original layout and colours have been reproduced there.

The building can be seen from Rue d'Arenberg, at numbers 11-13, in the centre of Brussels.

The shop's original furniture can be seen at the Art & History Museum (Parc du Cinquantenaire 10), open Tuesday to Sunday; the museum is closed on Mondays and on 1 January, 1 May, 1 November, 11 November and 25 December.