Horta premetro station is a stop on the

Brussels Metro The Brussels Metro (french: Métro de Bruxelles, nl, Brusselse metro) is a rapid transit system serving a large part of the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium. It consists of four conventional metro lines and three ''premetro'' lines. The me ...

. It is located on the north–south Brussels premetro line in the Saint-Gilles commune of the

Brussels capital region Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. It was opened on 3 December 1993.

Location

The

premetro A premetro is a tramway or light railway which includes segments built to rapid transit standards, generally as part of a process of conversion to a metro-standards railway usually by the construction of tunnels in the central city area. Hist ...

station forms part of a southerly extension to the north–south Brussels premetro line (formerly line 3), which originally linked the Brussels-North railway station and

Brussels-South railway station Brussels-South railway station (french: Gare de Bruxelles-Midi, nl, Station Brussel-Zuid, IATA code: ZYR), officially Brussels-South (french: Bruxelles-Midi, link=no, nl, Brussel-Zuid, link=no), is a major railway station in Brussels, Belgium ...

. Located on the Chaussée de Waterloo/Waterloosesteenweg, the underground station serves the 3, 4, 33 and 51 trams while the 81, 83 and 97 trams and 48 bus stop 100 m to the north-west around the Barrière de Saint-Gilles. An underground car park occupies the space between the platforms and the park above. The station is unusual in that it can only be reached from the eastern end, at the entrance on the Chaussée de Waterloo/Waterloosesteenweg, whereas no entrance was built leading to Place van Meenen/Van Meenenplein, which would have eased access to the town hall.

Decoration

The station is named for Art Nouveau architect

Victor Horta Victor Pierre Horta (; Victor, Baron Horta after 1932; 6 January 1861 – 8 September 1947) was a Belgian architect and designer, and one of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement. His Hôtel Tassel in Brussels, built in 1892–93, is often ...

, who designed a number of significant buildings in the area. Decorative ironwork and stained glass designed by Horta for the Maison du Peuple/Volkshuis and Hôtel Aubecq, which were demolished in the 1950s and 1960s, is on display in the station. The interior tilework is grey. The station is a favourite hangout for adolescents, and the STIB/MIVB security officers, community wardens and police are often in attendance. On 22 January 2012, the station suffered a graffiti attack of such scale - paint had been splashed carelessly all the way along the walls - that it was closed for 24 hours while it was cleaned.

External links

Photographs of Horta station

Map showing surrounds of station
Brussels metro stations Saint-Gilles, Belgium {{Brussels-metro-stub