There used to stand a wooden house on this spot, known as 'Den Berch' (the Mountain). When the skippers bought the house in 1434 they changed the name to 'Den Horen' (the Horn).

Arround 1650 the wooden guildhall was replaced by a stone building. During the bombardment of Brussels in 1695 the building was severely damaged. The design of the renovation was done by Antoon Pastorana in 1697. It is one of the most richly decorated guildhalls on the Town Square. In the gable some see the rear side of a ship.

Click here for other buildings on the Town Square.

Justin Ayton: 'The de-construction of the front plane of the building, particularly at the piano nobile level where it is reduced into a trabeated structure expressed three-dimensionally through the concave recesses is incredibly sophisticated, far more so than any of the other buildings around the Grand Place, where the elevations themselves, behind the decorative sculpture, are enclosing an monodimensional; the treatment of Le Cornet is reminiscent of the works of Borromini in Italy and Vanbrugh in England (has anyone ever published a monograph on either the building or the architect?).'

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