Belgian comic center

**Belgian comic center**
	; Street facade
Data
place	Brussels
Art	Art museum
architect	Victor Horta
opening	October 6, 1989
Website	comicscenter.net

The Belgian Comic Strip Center (BCZ) ( english The Belgian Comic Strip Center , French Center Belge de la bande dessinée ( BCSC ), Dutch Belgian Centrum voor het beeldverhaal ) is the national museum for Belgian comics . It is located on Zandstraat 20 Rue des Sables in Brussels .

The original building

The building was built in 1906 by the famous architect Victor Horta in Art Nouveau style and was originally a department store for the cloth merchant Charles Waucquez . After Waucquez died in 1920, the building began to deteriorate and after 1970 the textile wholesalers closed its doors. Jean Delhaye, a former Horta employee, tried to save the building from deterioration. On October 16, 1975, it was recognized as a Protected Cultural Heritage by the Royal Commission on Monuments and Landscapes . The building remained dilapidated and was a select target for vandalism.

Restoration and new function

In 1980 the architect Jean Breydel visited the house and considered restoring the whole building. The fact that Belgium is seen as a center of European comic art justified the establishment of a museum in honor of the greats of Belgian comics. Breydel and the comic artists Bob de Moor and Alain Baran , who had also visited the building, were immediately won over to the idea and Hergé also supported the plan. There was also financial support in 1983 when the Minister for Public Works, Louis Olivier , decided that the building should be purchased by the Public Buildings Administration. Horta's last remaining department store was from then on state property. In 1986, a government decision began with the restoration .

The main person in charge, Pierre van Assche, made sure that the building was redesigned so that the original architecture was restored and still harmonized with today's elements. The mosaic was laid by Italian specialists because there was no longer anyone in Belgium who had mastered this style. On October 6, 1989, the Belgian Comics Museum was opened in the presence of King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola .

The Belgian comic museum

The museum has a restaurant, a room for Victor Horta , a library with reading room and study room , an exhibition on the production of comic strips, an auditorium , a room in which original comic drawings are exhibited and a room on cartoons with original animation drafts by now forgotten Belgian cartoons.

The bookstore and the Horta bistro are on the ground floor. On the first floor there is a chronological overview of the pioneers of the Belgian comic strip, each of which has its own exhibition room. The cartoonists exhibited here all date from 1929 to 1960. The legendary magazines Tintin and Spirou are also presented here.

The museum holds regular special exhibitions (more than 60 since its inception) and organizes meetings between authors and the public.