Grand Hotel Bellevue

Former "GRAND HÔTEL BELLE VUE", also known as "ROTONDE". Protected as a monument (facades and roofs) by B.V.E. of 27.04.1983, with an extension of protection to the interior by M.B. of 10.11.1995. Constructed at the extreme eastern edge of the seaside resort between 1909 and 1911, on behalf of N.V. "Grand Hôtel Belle Vue" according to the design of shareholder and architect Octave Van Rysselberghe (Ninderhout). The original concept aimed to reconcile a strict neo-Palladian classicism with cottage architecture in a forward-thinking pre-modernist structure for its time. Van Rysselberghe designed a rectangular building, consisting of two wings with a central rectangular interior space, which was arranged as a ballroom; the distinctive amphitheater-shaped forepart or rotunda was attached on the eastern side. The construction method was advanced: a skeleton of reinforced concrete was clad with natural stone slabs between which the joints were painted in a contrasting color. The hotel had one hundred and twenty rooms, two elevators, and sixteen baths with warm seawater at its opening in June 1911. World War I caused significant damage to the hotel, after which a first restoration took place between 1920-1924. The existing building was used as a starting point; however, through considerable simplification, it gained a more modern character: specific cottage elements, such as the red tiled roof of the mansard floor, were omitted and replaced with a fifth construction layer; the southern wing was not entirely rebuilt after the destruction of 1914-18 and reduced to two floors, just like the west building, which contained the sea baths and a sun terrace. In 1951-1952, the hotel rooms were transformed into individual apartments. The current building volume on an elevated ground floor and under a flat roof includes the semi-circular forepart of eleven bays and five floors; the adjoining west wing of eleven bays and five floors under a flat roof; a low extension of two floors to the west and south. Strongly rhythmized facade cladding, among other things, with continuous pilasters at the rotunda. Set back ground floor with semi-recessed bay windows at the rotunda and covered loggias in the west wing. In the half forepart or rotunda, the ground floor is arranged as a dining room, which originally encompassed the entire semicircle. The interior features a classical style decoration; the original color scheme has only been partially preserved. The dining room consists of a circularly curved space, with bay windows in each of the 11 bays. Inside, this space is bordered by a platform on which pseudo-Ionic columns with fluted shafts on a constricted base support the ceiling; between the columns, the stairs and a balustrade protrude. Well-crafted stucco work on the wall decoration and the architrave. A round-arched niche is elaborated in the end wall. The ceiling consists of a play of triangular, staggered cassettes. The parquet floor shows a herringbone pattern. The space between the rotunda and the ballroom contains, among other things, the staircase, the service staircase, and the former smoking room. The monumental staircase includes the elevator shaft around which a straight staircase with right turns, interrupted by landings with a landing, spirals. The massive handrails are finished straight on the elevator side and stair-shaped on the outside. The staircase is executed in lower quality terrazzo and appears to be remodeled. The monumental ballroom is now partially filled with the bedrooms and storage rooms of the preceding apartments. Originally, the whole was conceived as an atrium or courtyard, of which the long side opened via a row of columns onto two smaller side rooms each time. The short side included, among other things, a stage. The original decoration of the space is now only partially preserved. The row of columns with six pairs of coupled pseudo-Ionic columns and two half-columns is gone, but important portions of the main entablature and the cassettes ceiling have been preserved. The second, third, and fourth floors contain the apartments. The various floors are accessible via the stair construction against the southern facade and the service staircase behind the rotunda. The layout per floor is uniform and consists of a U-shaped corridor above the ballroom and a semi-circular corridor in the rotunda. The joinery of the panel doors features a sober classicist finish with three cassettes, fluted door frames, and a profiled upper lintel. The apartments have a four-part floor plan with a living room, bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom.

Onroerend Erfgoed Vlaanderen