Hainaut

Hainaut — the coalfield and its cities

Art Deco Hainaut is a province of contrasts: Charleroi, with its town hall, whose belfry is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the De Heug building; Mons, with the Mundaneum; and Tournai, with Victor Horta’s Museum of Fine Arts. Three cities, three faces of Art Deco in Hainaut.

4 stops · Duration full day · Distance multi-villes

Open the route on the map →

1. Hôtel de ville de Charleroi

   Jules Cézar & Joseph André · 1936

   A blend of classicism and Art Deco, Charleroi town hall came out of an architectural competition launched in 1930.

2. Immeuble De Heug (Pianos De Heug)

   Marcel Leborgne · 1934

   Modernist building by Marcel Leborgne (probably with his brother Henri), built in 1933-1934 for the De Heug piano factory at the corner of quai Arthur Rimbaud and rue du Bastion d'Egmont.

3. Mundaneum (ancien grand magasin L'Indépendance)

   Guillaume Vleugels · 1930

   Former cooperative department store 'L'Indépendance', designed in 1929-1930 by the architect Guillaume Vleugels for the 'Union coopérative de Belgique'.

4. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tournai

   Victor Horta · 1928

   A work by Victor Horta, the museum shows an Art Nouveau style tinged with Art Deco, the result of a slow project: plans in 1907, construction begun in 1913, interrupted by the war, inaugurated in 1928.

Translated from the French original.