Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée: Temple of the Ninth Art

Why is it significant?

Step beneath the curving glass canopy of the former Magasins Waucquez, a textile department store designed in nineteen oh six by master architect Victor Horta.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Step beneath the curving glass canopy of the former Magasins Waucquez, a textile department store designed in nineteen oh six by master architect Victor Horta. Here, Art Nouveau industrial architecture marries Belgium's greatest modern cultural export: the comic strip, officially celebrated across the francophone world as the Ninth Art. Horta designed the building with soaring glass lightwells and exposed riveted iron trusses, creating a bright and airy cathedral of commerce that proved ideal for displaying delicate illustrated panels.

In the mid-twentieth century, Belgium became the undisputed world capital of comic books, driven by two legendary publishing studios in Brussels and Marcinelle. Hergé pioneered the crisp, elegant ligne claire style in The Adventures of Tintin, while André Franquin revolutionized dynamic comic action with Spirou, Marsupilami, and the famously lazy office hero Gaston Lagaffe. The Ninth Art in Belgium transcended entertainment to become a profound social commentary: Hergé reflected geopolitical conflicts and scientific ambition, while Franquin used humor to satirize corporate bureaucracy and militarism.

Look around the luminous entrance hall, where a life-sized red-and-white checkered moon rocket from Tintin's Explorers on the Moon stands beneath Horta's original wrought-iron skylight and curved stone staircases. Nearby sits an authentic red Citroën 2CV from comic adventures, surrounded by rotating original manuscript pages, pencil sketches, and inked plates by Belgium's master cartoonists. The permanent collection also honors Peyo, creator of the Smurfs, and Morris, creator of the lonesome cowboy Lucky Luke, who shoots faster than his own shadow across the Wild West.

By the nineteen seventies, this magnificent Horta warehouse had fallen into complete disrepair and was slated for demolition. A passionate coalition of comic artists, heritage architects, and Hergé himself campaigned to save the structure, meticulously restoring Horta's iron columns to house this cultural shrine, which opened in nineteen eighty-nine.

Walk out into Rue des Sables, follow Rue du Fossé aux Loups westward, and cross into the serene neoclassical quadrangle of Place des Martyrs.