Stoclet Palace

Josef Hoffmann built the Palais Stoclet between 1905 and 1911 for the financier Adolphe Stoclet, and it is the most complete surviving expression of the Vienna Secession idea of the total work of art: Hoffmann designed the building, the furniture, the fittings, the cutlery and the garden, and the Wiener Werkstatte executed them, with white marble cladding edged in gilt bronze and a stepped tower carrying four figures. Gustav Klimt made the dining room frieze in marble, enamel, coral and gold, the Tree of Life, which is among his most important works and has never been publicly exhibited. The house is still owned by the family and has never been opened, so it is seen only from the street, and UNESCO inscribed it in 2009 on that basis.

History

Adolphe Stoclet, a Belgian financier and art collector, and his wife Suzanne commissioned the house from Josef Hoffmann, a founding member of the Vienna Secession, whom Stoclet had met in Vienna while overseeing the construction of a railway; it was the first residential project of the Wiener Werkstätte, and Hoffmann left much of the interior decoration to the painters Gustav Klimt and Fernand Khnopff. He presented the plans in 1905, and the building, put up in three stages, was finished in 1911. Adolphe Stoclet lived there until his death on 3 November 1949, after which it passed to his daughter-in-law Annie Stoclet; it was classified as a historical monument in 1976, went to her four daughters after her death in 2002 and was designated a World Heritage Site in 2009. In 2024 the Brussels Parliament approved a motion ordering the house to open for at most 15 days a year, though when that will happen remains unclear (Wikipedia, Stoclet Palace).

The main sights

• White marble and gilt bronze - the exterior cladding and its edging.
• The stepped tower - four sculpted figures over the entrance range.
• A total design scheme - building, garden and fittings by one hand.
• Klimt's Tree of Life inside - the frieze that has never been shown publicly.

When to go

Year round, but only from the pavement. Thirty minutes. Morning light falls on the street facade. There is no visitor access at any time of year and no prospect of it.

Before you go

It is closed and has never been open; you see a facade behind a fence from a busy avenue. The Klimt frieze cannot be seen by anyone. The house is on a main road with traffic. Crossing the city for it is worth doing only if a facade is enough.

Nearby

The Africa Museum at Tervuren is further out the same avenue; central Brussels is west.

Key facts