The Plantin-Moretus Museum

Christophe Plantin set up a printing house in Antwerp in the sixteenth century and it stayed in his family, working, for three hundred years, until the last descendant sold the whole thing to the city intact. That is what makes it unique and why UNESCO lists it: not a museum about printing but the actual premises, with the living quarters, the courtyard garden, the shop where books were sold, the type foundry, the correcting room, the business archives, and the presses themselves, two of which are the oldest surviving anywhere. The family were rich and cultivated, so the house is hung with Rubens portraits, Balthasar Moretus had been his friend since school, and the library is a panelled room of gilded spines. Walking through it, you can follow a book from cast type to bound copy in the rooms where it happened.

History

Christophe Plantin, his wife Jeanne Rivière and their first daughter Margaretha moved from France to Antwerp around 1550, where he traded in lace before turning to printing, and in 1576 the family and the press moved into the building called De Gulden Passer. After Plantin's death the business went to his son-in-law Jan Moretus and stayed with his descendants until 1876, when Edward Moretus sold the company to the city of Antwerp; a year later the public could visit the living quarters and the printing presses. The museum was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2005 (Wikipedia, Plantin-Moretus Museum).

The main sights

• The two oldest presses - the sixteenth-century wooden presses still in place.
• The type foundry and correcting room - the working heart of the printing house.
• The library - the panelled room of the family's own collection.
• The Rubens portraits - paintings of the family by Balthasar Moretus's lifelong friend.

When to go

Year-round and a good wet-weather option; it closes on Mondays. Mornings are quietest. Allow a couple of hours, more if printing history interests you, as the labelling is detailed and there is a great deal to read.

Good to know

It is a museum of process and business records as much as objects, so those without an interest in books and printing may find it dry despite its importance. The rooms are dim, deliberately, to protect paper and bindings. It is easy to rush and miss the point, which is the completeness of the survival rather than any single showpiece.

Nearby

Antwerp's cathedral, Grote Markt and the MAS museum are all in the centre.

Key facts