You can’t miss the Palais Stoclet as you cycle down Avenue de Tervuren in Brussels. It’s an impressive modernist mansion clad in white marble with a sleek tower topped with four nude figures.
It was built in 1905-1911 by the Viennese architect Josef Hoffmann for the wealthy Belgian banker Adolphe Stoclet. His aim was to create a shrine to art as well as a declaration of love for his wife Suzanne. A Belgian Taj Mahal, you might call it.
Artists and craftsmen were recruited to design every detail, including the artworks, light fittings, door handles and cutlery. And even the silver toilet fittings. The couple invited some of the finest avant-garde artists and architects of the period to visit the house, including Jean Cocteau, Serge Diaghilev and Robert Mallet-Stevens. But you are unlikely ever to get inside this dream palace.
The UNESCO-listed palace is owned by the descendants of the original owners and they absolutely refuse to allow anyone inside. The only photographs of the interior date from the early 20th century. Over the years, Brussels Region has tried to persuade the owners to open their doors, but they stubbornly refuse.
The Region recently created a virtual 3-D reconstruction of the interior as it looked in 1911 based on archive photographs and architectural plans. You can watch the video in a room of the art nouveau Van Eetvelde Mansion (open Saturday, Sunday and Monday).
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
