Plantin-Moretus Museum

Absolutely stunning museum! One of the highlights of my trip to Antwerp. The history of printing comes alive in the most beautiful and authentic setting. The old presses, books, and interiors are so well preserved — it feels like walking through time. A must-visit for anyone who loves books, history, or design.

Loved the hidden garden, calm and delicate. This part is free of charge. Be careful not to go into the exhibition, because otherwise someone will come and throw you out — even if you're just trying to take a quick look on the basement to get an idea of whether the visit is worth it, given the extremely vague explanation from the ticket seller about what this museum is actually about.

I loved this museum. I even wrote a blog about it after my visit. The smell of paper, the creaking of wooden floors, the smell of ink… it was all magical to me. They also have a beautiful garden. Everything makes you feel like you are in another dimension.

Must-see museum hosting the oldest printing enterprise existing. The journey through the private house of the founders of the company takes us through a fascinating journey where we discover the central role that this place had in the scientific, humanistic and political development of Europe. Among the amazing pieces collected here: some original books dating centuries, the two oldest printing presses with 400 years of history and 2 portraits signed by Rubens.

Wonderful museum - a highlight of our visit to Antwerp. Even if you have only a passing interest in print, typography, old buildings, history- totally worth a visit. We went with young children and the staff handled their liveliness very well and introduced the museum well to us. The animal hunt sheet went down well with my youngest and we were also given a parent sheet which showed where all the animals could be found which is a brilliant idea that every museum should do. The printing demonstration room has some interactive exhibits for children and a printer there who gave us a demonstration and my son helped print a sheet which we were given to take home. The little store room contains materials for children to draw a picture and sit on beanbags in the cool. My one suggestion for additional child-friendliness would be that a couple of the items that could be touched weren’t marked as such (was only on the audioguide). Although it might not seem the most child-friendly topic my children found it really interesting given they do interact with letters and typography - e.g. they liked seeing some familiar font names on the blocks. I also really enjoyed looking at the details of the building itself to see how it has been preserved over the years.

Such a stunning piece of history, from the historic house to how the first movable type press was founded. Demonstrations and audio guides give extra context and information. And you can relax halfway in the inner garden. See the two oldest movable type presses in Europe!

Very interesting and well organized museum. The staff is very friendly and helpful. The place is really nice with a beautiful courtyard in the center. Truly enjoyed reading and learning about the printing, book binding and family history. A definite visit here if you are in the Antwerp neighborhood.

A must-see in Antwerp! Oldest printing presses in the world. Lots of amazing antique books on display, plus interesting history of the family of book printers and printing trade artifacts. Also, paintings by Rubens. Highly recommend this tour!

If there was a single thing I was looking forward to during my trip to Antwerp, it was this museum. For my money, these are the best types of museums. But to each their own, I'm a nerd so I love this stuff. Actually I got kinda lucky, because the museum is closed certain days, and I was only here certain days, and thought I could visit a different day, but it ended up being today. My absolute favorite part was watching Rudi give a printing demonstration on a Gutenberg replica. I walked into the demo about halfway through a presentation he was giving to a group of German ladies. I only picked up on about half of it, but stuck around until the end, and by that time there was a small group of English speakers, and he did it again! Wonderful presentation. I do have a pre-existing interest in printing, so I knew a lot of the information, but was happy to hear it again, and really excited that he was offering some of the pages that he printed onto! As for the rest of the museum, you'll get to see a lot of examples of printing, lots of actual equipment, and shelves and shelves of leather bound books. Cannot recommend this museum enough. Unfortunately they are a bit ableist, so wheelchairs are pretty much out of the question (as far as I could see) and those with a cane or crutches will have moderate difficulty due to the amount of small sets of stairs throughout the museum.

This is a wonderful historic museum. Its main focus is printing, but there are numerous Peter Paul Rubens paintings (plus a few copies) and it's also a home from 400 years ago. I had no expectations, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It makes history interesting. There were printing demonstrations and the 2 oldest printing presses in the world. There were also thousands of rare books.

If you are visiting Brussels, take the quick train ride to visit this fascinating museum which is the only one in the world with a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation. The museum is the former residence and offices of a prominent Antwerp family that made a significant portion of their I come from printing scientific and ecclesiastical texts. When the business died out with the 9th generation, the mayor of Antwerp had the foresight to buy all of its contents (business and personal) so that it could be turned into a museum more than 150 years ago. It has 32 rooms, complete with furniture, books, paintings, tapestries, printing dies, and the two oldest surviving printing presses in the world. If you are into books, fonts, history, or other nerdy things, this is not to be missed. The docent was extremely passionate and very helpful.

Sparse house but cool videos on the printing presses and how they crafted individual letters then arranged and packed the letters into the templates for the pages they needed to print.....and then of course how they used the press to roll the paper through Very time consuming process and have to hand it to those in the profession for having the patience and expertise to create all those publications from start to finish These are the things I never thought about & exactly how much there is to be thankful for, to those who made it possible to share news, stories, manuscripts and the great masterpieces

This is one of the best museums I've ever been to. They do such a nice job of laying out the family history while showing how print really changed the world and how this particular print house spread the knowledge of science, geography, religion, medicine and more. I had planned to spend an hour in there, and end up spending 3! It was just so good.

I'm really glad I got to see this museum! The house was much bigger, more interesting, and less crowded than Rubenshuis.

This is a wonderful museum. I might have had a moment in the larger library. My roommate actually teared up. It happened. If you're a fan of books you're going to be a BIG fan of the Plantin-Moretus Museum. The museum is the former residence and printing establishment of, you guessed it, Plantijn and Moretus. The museum houses the two oldest printing presses in the world (yes, world) and has a huge collection of the original typographical material and printing tools, which are stunning to see. The main library is absolutely fantastic and contains some 25,000 volumes, and you can even visit the original shop where the books were sold to customers. Not to mention that the entire place is a gorgeously preserved representation of a 16th and 17th century residence, with leather walls and a collection of original paintings by Pieter Paul Rubens. If you are, by chance, in Antwerp this museum is magnificent and shouldn't be missed.

Perhaps a bit steep at 8€ a head, but this is a really unique and impressive museum that you shouldn't miss. The Moretus family of merchants made Shakespeare look like a pauper; these folks had some serious cash back in the day. It's absolutely fascinating to get such an intimiate look at something so significant as the spread of the printed word. From techniques to technology, the whole museum is well-designed, laid out and full of interesting things explained in ways that make them interesting. From two of the world's oldest printing presses, to antique wood and copper plates, to copies of tomes like Mercator's atlas and way too many bibles, this place is chock full of historical artifacts. Also, let me just say how crazy ridiculous it is that so many rooms in the house are wallpapered with friggin' guilded leather, which sounds (and is) obnoxiously expensive. "Oh, you have a leather couch? How quaint. My ENTIRE HOME is wrapped in luxurious leather hides." Eat that, royals!

Splendid! Absolutely worth going out of your way. It's the remains -- a complex of buildings from the 16th & 17th centuries -- of what was at one time the largest printing company in Europe. In business for over 300 years.

In the interest of time and attention span, I'll keep the geek-out to a minimum about how much I LOVE this museum. That being said, this is one of my favorite museums in Europe. It is widely considered the most comprehensive collection of print materials and print shop records in the world. And it's absolutely amazing. The building itself--the Plaintin and Moretus workshops and home--is phenomenal with its original, embossed leather walls, creeky wood floors, and low beamed ceilings. It is truly a step back in time and gave me an excellent sense of what Antwerp was like when it was the world capital of all things printed. Make time for this UNESCO World Heritage site; it's a must-see!

Nice museum, but boring for kids. The personnel of the shop is ridiculously rude.