Belgisches Haus
The Belgisches Haus is a Cologne building that records Belgium’s postwar presence through architecture, diplomacy, culture and exchange. The Belgian state built it in the late 1940s.
Johannes Schüller designed its grey tuff façade, while visual artist Hans Hansen shaped the interior. The Belgisches Haus opened in February 1950 as Cologne’s first foreign cultural institute.
Its original programme combined the Belgian Consulate General with a hotel, restaurant, meeting rooms, event spaces and a library. The consulate supported Belgians across three German states.
The site also hosted Belgian regional trade offices, concerts, readings, cabaret performances and a library devoted to Belgium and Luxembourg. That library held more than 5,000 volumes on Belgium and Luxembourg.
In 2016, the collection moved to the University and City Library of Cologne, preserving access for research and interested readers. The Belgian Consulate General closed its Cologne office in 2015.
Afterward, the Belgisches Haus continued as a cultural venue and meeting place, while also becoming a temporary home for Cologne’s Roman-Germanic Museum. The grey façade anchors this Belgian story in Cologne.
- City
- Cologne
- Content updated
Take this page with you
The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.
Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Cologne. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.
What is myTuur?
myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.