Belgian Comic Strip Center

The Comic Art Museum, still widely signposted and registered under its founding name Belgian Comic Strip Center, occupies a department store that was never meant to hold pictures. Victor Horta designed the Waucquez warehouse in 1906 for a textile merchant, and it is the last semi-industrial building of his that survives. The museum reports about 200,000 visitors a year across 4,200 square metres of permanent and temporary exhibitions. Adult admission is EUR 14.00. General adult admission is €14 and includes the museum's permanent and temporary exhibitions.

Five permanent exhibitions carry the building. Large temporary exhibitions run alongside them and are included in the same ticket, as is the Gallery space. Two reading collections sit under the same roof and are separate from the exhibition route. The reading room holds over 7,000 albums, including translations into more than 40 languages, and is open during museum hours for EUR 0.50, or free with an entrance ticket. The museum is closed on Monday, 31 August 2026, one of its two excluded summer Mondays. It otherwise operates under its published schedule and opens on public holidays except 25 December and 1 January.

Allow two hours. The museum publishes no suggested visit length of its own, so that figure is this guide's judgement, built from numbers it does publish. The museum's own guided tour of the collection runs one hour and thirty minutes, and a guided tour moves briskly and skips nothing; two hours is that pace with the entrance hall added back, because the hall is half the reason to come and rewards standing still in it. General adult admission is €14 and includes the museum's permanent and temporary exhibitions.

Monday is the closing day, and it is the single most useful thing to know before setting out. The museum, its permanent and temporary exhibitions and the bookshop are open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm, with the last museum tickets sold at 5.00pm. Two days close early. Tuesday–Sunday 10:00–18:00; last admission 17:00. Open on Mondays in July and August except 24 and 31 August. Closed 25 December and 1 January. On 24 December: 10:00–16:00, last admission 15:00. On 31 December: 10:00–17:00, last admission 16:00.

One ticket covers the museum, the permanent exhibitions and the temporary exhibitions. Individual prices are EUR 14.00 for adults, EUR 11.00 for visitors aged 65 and over and for those aged 12 to 25, EUR 6.00 for children aged 6 to 11, and free for children under 6. Tickets are neither exchanged nor refunded once bought. General adult admission is €14 and includes the museum's permanent and temporary exhibitions. Wheelchair users enter through Brasserie Horta via the doorway immediately right of the main entrance. An elevator beside the central staircase reaches every museum floor.

The address is 20 rue des Sables, 1000 Brussels, in the centre of the city near the Grand-Place, the Galeries Saint-Hubert and the Cathedral of Saints Michael and Gudula. No car is needed and none is worth the trouble. Coaches use Boulevard Pacheco. The museum is at Rue des Sables 20, 1000 Brussels. Brussels-Central and Brussels-North railway stations are each about a 15-minute walk away; Brussels-North also serves international coaches. For STIB tram, bus and metro routing, use “Brussels, Rue des Sables 20” as the destination. Bicycle parking is available in front of the museum.

The 5.00pm last-ticket rule and the Monday closure between them account for most wasted journeys, and neither is negotiable at the desk. After that, the museum's published conditions are worth reading because several are stricter than a visitor might expect. Eating and drinking are forbidden anywhere in the museum except the Brasserie Horta, and picnics are not allowed in the brasserie either. Wheelchair users enter through Brasserie Horta via the doorway immediately right of the main entrance. An adapted toilet is available on the ground floor. A wheelchair can be borrowed by leaving identification at reception.

The museum publishes no photography policy on the pages consulted for this guide, including its practical information section and its general terms and conditions, which set out rules on food, bags and pets but say nothing about cameras. Treat that as unresolved rather than as permission, ask at the reception desk on the way in, and expect the answer to differ between the Horta hall and a temporary exhibition of original artwork, where lenders usually impose their own restrictions. A wheelchair can be borrowed by leaving identification at reception. Pushchairs, wheelchairs and disability mobility scooters are permitted.