The Plantin-Moretus is unlike any other museum in Europe. The Plantin-Moretus family operated their printing workshop here from the 1570s to 1867, and on their final closure the city bought the property intact — building, presses, library, archives, type, family portraits — and turned it into a museum. The result is the only sixteenth-century printing workshop preserved as it was when working.
The two oldest wooden presses in the world (c. 1600) are in the printing room. The library, with its leather chairs and original folios, is one of the most atmospheric spaces in Belgium. Throughout the building, Rubens portraits of the family (he was the printers' neighbour and friend) hang in the rooms where they were painted. Allow at least two hours; allow longer if you read at all. UNESCO World Heritage. Closed Mondays.