Belgian Comic Strip Center: Where Art Nouveau Meets the Ninth Art

What Is the Belgian Comic Strip Center?

The Belgian Comic Strip Center, known in French as the Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée (CBBD), is Belgium's national museum dedicated to comic art, or as Belgians call it, the ninth art. Situated at Rue des Sables 20 in central Brussels, it occupies one of the most architecturally significant buildings in the city: a former department store designed by Art Nouveau pioneer Victor Horta in 1906. The pairing of subject matter and setting is not accidental. Belgium is one of the few countries that treats comics as a serious cultural form worthy of institutional preservation, and the choice of a Horta building signals that the museum considers itself part of the city's broader artistic heritage.

The museum covers Belgian comic art across its full sweep, from early 20th-century strips to contemporary graphic novels. Tintin and the Smurfs receive the most prominent treatment, but the collection extends well beyond household names. If you are already exploring the Brussels Comic Strip Route across the city's painted walls, the CBBD provides the institutional context and deeper background that the outdoor murals alone cannot offer.

The Building: A Victor Horta Masterpiece You Can Walk Through

Even visitors with no interest in comics should consider stepping inside for the architecture alone. Victor Horta completed the Waucquez warehouse and department store in 1906, and it remains one of his most intact surviving commercial works in Brussels. Unlike the more intimate residential buildings Horta is famous for, such as his own house in Saint-Gilles, the Waucquez building was designed for public circulation and commerce, which means the grand gestures of Art Nouveau are here scaled up: the soaring glass-and-iron atrium floods the entrance hall with diffuse natural light, the curvilinear ironwork columns branch and curve like stems, and the mosaic floor tiles retain their original pattern.

The ground floor Brasserie Horta, named in the architect's honor, occupies the most spectacular part of the atrium and is open to the public regardless of whether you pay museum admission. Sitting at a table beneath that glass canopy gives you a genuine sense of what the building looked like in commercial use. For a deeper exploration of Horta's residential work, the Horta Museum in Saint-Gilles offers a complementary perspective on the architect's domestic interiors.

Photography inside the entrance hall is generally permitted for personal use. The light inside is soft and even throughout the day thanks to the north-facing glass roof, which means photographs of the ironwork and mosaic floor come out well at almost any hour without harsh shadows. The upper gallery levels, accessed by the original staircase, offer views down into the atrium that are worth pausing for.

The Permanent Collection: More Than Tintin

The museum's permanent galleries begin with a methodical introduction to the mechanics of comic art: how a script becomes a storyboard, how line weights and color choices convey mood, and how the panel grid structures time. This section is more intellectually rigorous than most visitors expect, and it rewards patience. Original sketch pages, inked boards, and preparatory drawings are shown alongside the finished printed versions, making the creative process unusually transparent.

The Tintin galleries are predictably the centerpiece. Original drawings by Hergé, production materials, and contextual panels about the character's evolution from a 1929 newspaper strip to a global franchise are displayed with care. The Smurfs section, covering Pierre Culliford (Peyo) and his characters, is almost equally well developed. But the museum's real depth lies in its coverage of the Brussels school of comic art, the ligne claire tradition, and the generations of Belgian artists who shaped European comics between the 1940s and 1980s. Visitors familiar with names like Edgar P. Jacobs, Willy Vandersteen, or Raymond Macherot will find original material here. For those who aren't, the museum provides enough context to make these figures legible without prior knowledge. The Brussels comic strip guide covers the broader cultural landscape if you want to prepare before visiting.

Temporary exhibitions rotate regularly and tend to be substantive rather than purely promotional. Past exhibitions have addressed comics and politics, the role of women in Belgian comic art, and retrospectives of individual artists. Check the official website before your visit to see what's currently showing, as temporary exhibitions can significantly change the experience and sometimes justify a second visit.

Visiting in Practice: Timing, Crowds, and Navigation

The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00, with last admission at 17:00. On Mondays during Belgian school holidays, it also opens. In July and mid-August, it is generally open every day. The building accommodates groups reasonably well, but the atrium and Tintin galleries become noticeably crowded on weekend mornings, particularly when school groups are present. Weekday afternoons, especially Tuesday through Thursday, offer the most comfortable viewing conditions. Arriving at 10:00 on a Tuesday gives you the best chance of moving through the upper galleries at your own pace.

The museum occupies three main floors connected by the original staircases and a lift that serves all levels. Wheelchair users should use the side entrance via the Brasserie Horta to the right of the main entrance. Adapted restrooms are on the ground floor. A wheelchair is available on-site on request, and visitors presenting a disability card receive a 50% discount on admission to the applicable ticket category. The café and the bookshop, which has one of the best selections of Belgian comics and related publications in the city, are both accessible from the ground floor without requiring full museum admission.

Getting There and the Surrounding Neighborhood

The museum sits within the Îlot Sacré area, the dense historic core immediately north of the Grand-Place. It is about a ten-minute walk from Brussels-Central station, or a short walk from the De Brouckère metro station (lines 1 and 5), which has lift access. The route from De Brouckère along Boulevard Anspach and then east to Rue des Sables is straightforward and passes through the commercial centre of Brussels.

The surrounding streets are worth exploring before or after your visit. The Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, the 19th-century glass-roofed shopping arcade, is a five-minute walk away and offers a good place for coffee. The neighborhood has plenty of lunch options ranging from quick sandwiches to sit-down Belgian restaurants, though places directly on tourist corridors tend to price accordingly. Walking one or two streets off the main routes usually improves both quality and price.

Honest Assessment: Is It Worth Your Time?

For most visitors, yes. The combination of the Horta architecture and a genuinely well-curated permanent collection makes this more rewarding than the typical theme museum. The explanatory panels are available in French, Dutch, and English throughout the permanent galleries, so language is not a barrier. Two hours is sufficient for a solid visit; three hours lets you read more carefully and spend time in the bookshop.

That said, visitors expecting an interactive, child-oriented experience in the style of a children's science museum may be underwhelmed. The CBBD is a museum in the traditional sense: display cases, original artwork, descriptive text. Children who already have a connection to Tintin or the Smurfs tend to engage well. Very young children without that existing interest may struggle. Adults with no prior exposure to Belgian comics but a general interest in art history and popular culture generally find it more absorbing than they expected. If you are trying to decide between several museums in a single day, the best museums in Brussels guide can help you prioritize based on your interests.

One honest limitation: the museum's focus is almost exclusively on Belgian and Franco-Belgian comics. Japanese manga, American superhero comics, and other traditions appear only in passing. Visitors whose primary interest is in those forms will find the collection narrow. That narrowness is also its strength: as a record of Belgian comic art specifically, it is comprehensive and serious.