To spot the Camille Lemonnier Museum, look for a stately cream-colored townhouse with ornate black wrought-iron balconies and long red banners by the green-gray door, standing right along the Waversesteenweg.
As you stand here, imagine the soft echo of footsteps on old wooden floors, the murmur of distinguished artists and writers drifting from behind tall windows, and the distant clatter of horse-drawn carriages from the late 1800s. This elegantly aged townhouse wasn’t always a museum-it was built in 1889 for baron Oscar Jolly, and you can almost smell the cigar smoke and see the velvet curtains billowing inside! For decades, it stood quietly until, in 1997, its doors opened to honor one of Belgium’s most daring French-speaking writers, Camille Lemonnier, whose spirit practically lingers in the air around you.
Lemonnier wrote just a short stroll from here at 25 rue du Lac, but his creative heart beats in these rooms. Thanks to his daughter Marie, his study from that old apartment has been carefully recreated in a way that makes you wonder if he might step in any minute, grumbling about a lost manuscript! But it’s more than just his desk and inkwell-every wall here buzzes with brilliant colors from masterpieces Lemonnier collected through friendships with the city’s most talented painters: you’ll spot portraits by Van Strijdonck and Emile Claus, landscapes from Baron and Heymans, and works by his own daughter Louise.
What’s better than a houseful of paintings? How about sculptures by Jef Lambeaux or even a plaster cast from Rodin himself-don’t worry, the sculptures don’t bite! This museum is one of Ixelles’ hidden treasures, a cabinet of wonders stuffed with literary secrets and stories, waiting for curious visitors with a love for imagination and old-fashioned mystery.
