Hôtel Empain, Private mansion in Brussels, Belgium

Hôtel Empain is a neoclassical townhouse at the corner of Rue Zinner and Rue Ducale, facing Brussels Park. Built in 1780 by Barnabé Guimard, it has white-rendered three-level facades, a stone band between ground and first floors, and a lower top level. The Rue Ducale side is symmetrical across five bays, with a central first-floor balcony and a dormer with a single window above the cornice.

Hôtel Empain was built in 1780 by architect Barnabé Guimard on a plot bought that year by Louis Montoyer, as part of the neoclassical buildings raised around Brussels Park from 1776. It belonged to Baron de Tiège in 1783, then to the Mercy d'Argenteau, Eggen, Van Volxem-Marischal and Croÿ families before passing to the Empain family in 1907, who gave it its name. Architect Octave Flanneau remodelled the interior, with total spending reaching half a million francs by 1909. Since 1988 it has housed the Flemish club De Warande.

The building is named after the Empain family, who owned it from 1907 and enriched the interior with marble, panelling, wall paintings, stained glass and mirrors. Since 1988 it has housed De Warande, a Flemish club whose name is the Dutch term for the Park of Brussels, the medieval game reserve of the Dukes of Brabant.

The building stands at the corner of Zinnerstraat and Hertogstraat, facing the Warandepark, a few hundred metres from the Prime Minister's residence. It is a private clubhouse, so visits concern the exterior: the Zinnerstraat side is plainer, with blind bays, while the Hertogstraat facade carries the balcony and dormer.

The 1907 interior work by the Empain family was led by architect Octave Flanneau and cost half a million francs by 1909. It included a stair hall in white veined Carrara marble, Louis XIV-style fireplaces in purple breccia, and sculpted doors on the ground and first floors. The garden facades use Euville stone in French Beaux-Arts style.