Mortuary and Chapel of Brugmann Hospital

1905 Victor Horta

Place Arthur Van Gehuchten 2 - 4 | Bruxelles

Ch. Bastin & J. Evrard © Hortamuseum
Avenue Jean Joseph Crocq 19, chapel and mortuary of the Hôpital Brugmann, rear façade (2011).
©Hortamuseum
Avenue Jean Joseph Crocq 19, chapel and mortuary of the Hôpital Brugmann, rear façade (1912).

In 1906, the Conseil des Hospices de Bruxelles entrusted Victor Horta with the design of a modern hospital named after its main patron, Georges Brugmann. On the 18 hectares of land available on the border with Jette, the architect devised a revolutionary medical garden city, made up of pavilions scattered among the greenery. The chosen visual identity, far from Horta's usual opulence, was fairly plain, with pavilions in an eclectic style tinged with Art Nouveau.

Area Laeken
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At the north-western end of the site, Horta used a slope of nearly 5 metres to set up a belfry-style building comprising two floors with complementary purposes: the ground floor, with its funeral chapel which the public could access on the street side; and the basement, with its mortuary and autopsy and laboratory rooms for the anatomo-pathology department, which could be reached from the hospital. A lift was used to move the corpses between these floors. 

A certain softness, typical of Horta's architecture, was introduced by the recesses, the metal canopies and the rounded corners. Inside, flanking a central vestibule, the chapel had two trefoil choirs, the first for Catholic services, the second for secular ceremonies. A wall hanging fixed to a frame featuring two cast-iron columns with a light on top of them originally separated these two areas.

During the reorganisation of the site by Philippe Samyn & Partners, the building was converted into a conference and training centre, opened in 2009. The Baroque fittings from the chapel of the Clinique Saint-Jean, transferred there in 1937 – the altar, pulpit and paintings – have been moved to the Sainte-Trinité Church (Church of the Holy Trinity) in Ixelles.

Nearby

By the same architect