Welcome in Museum Plantin-Moretus

Due to a trade union activity we don't know yet whether we will be able to open our doors on Thursday, October 5.
Groups with a confirmed booking are welcome.

Welcome

Practical information related to opening hours, ticket sales, time slots, accessibility and everything the museum has to offer.

de oude drukkerij in het Museum Plantin-Moretus

The Museum Plantin-Moretus, a UNESCO World Heritage site

On Google Arts & Culture

Did you know that the Museum Plantin-Moretus was the first museum on the UNESCO World Heritage list? Visit the museum online on Google Arts & Culture.

Five special pieces from the Rubens House on a visit

During an extensive renovation, the doors of the Rubens House remain closed. Fortunately, many works from the collection can be admired elsewhere. Five pieces are moving to Museum Plantin-Moretus. You can now view them there as part of the permanent exhibition. Martine Maris, Curator of the Rubens House, provides a taste of the five very diverse works.

Discover the museum and collection online

The Plantin-Moretus Museum in your home

The museum is always open online

We are always open if you go online. Go online with and dive into our collections, view our online exhibitions, take a virtual visit of the museum, browse through the museum guide, or listen to the audio guide. Everything to stay indoors and take your mind off things for a while.

Drawn to perfection | a curator's view

10 video's about unique drawings of the 17th century

Curator Virginie D'haene will guide you through the exhibition 'Drawn to perfection', along the most spectacular 17th-century drawings from our collection.

Impressive woodblocks

Woodblocks from the Plantin printing house

The Plantin-Moretus Museum keeps an extraordinary collection of 14,000 woodblocks. With these examples of true craftsmanship, book illustrations and other decorative elements were printed in the Plantin printing house.

Reading room open by appointment

Reading room

In our reading room you can consult numerous authentic documents. You will find a precious archive of printed works, manuscripts and drawings.

Digital services

If you have a simple research question, we will try to help you as much as possible by email.

New

Fellowship Programme

Early printed books in Antwerp

The Plantin-Moretus Museum and the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library (Antwerp) are pleased to launch a new call for applications for our fellowship programme. We will award two travel grants for research into the history of the early printed book (15th-18th century) in Antwerp, with the gracious support of the Thierry and Frédéric Nottebohm Grant of the Nottebohm Family Foundation.

Stories from the Plantinian Archives

The Plantinian Archives are a treasure trove of information about daily life at the Plantinian press. An That is why our archivist is able to bring the Moretus family and their employees back to life. The blog will be published on Medium, in English.

The museum celebrates mathematical genius Simon Stevin with web expo on Google Arts & Culture

In 2020 it will be 400 years ago that mathematician and inventor Simon Stevin (1548 - 1620) died. On May 18, International Museum Day, the Plantin-Moretus Museum commemorates the mathematical genius with an online exhibition on Google Arts & Culture. After all, the 'Officina Plantiniana' was the printer and publisher of almost 90% of Stevin's work.

Sketchbook young Rubens from the Plantin-Moretus Museum collection recognised as a masterpiece

30.04.2020 | The Flemish Government has placed no less than 194 drawings from the Prints room collection of the Plantin-Moretus Museum on the Masterpiece List. The best of the examples is a sketchbook with 43 drawings made by Peter Paul Rubens when he was 12-13 years old.

City of Antwerp and Google put more than 100,000 books online

The City of Antwerp and Google signed an agreement to digitise a large portion of the collections of the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library and the Plantin-Moretus Museum. This entails more than 100,000 works from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century that will be made freely accessible in the coming years via Google Books and the library catalogues of both institutions. The books to be scanned are no longer subject to copyright.

New acquisition: a unique oil sketch by the baroque painter Theodoor Boeyermans

Discover Museum Plantin-Moretus’ new acquisition: an oil sketch by Antwerp's 17th-century Baroque painter Theodoor Boeyermans. The work portrays the glorification of the house of Plantin-Moretus.

The museum in a nutshell

Step into the house and the print shop.

Enter the world of the influential Plantin and Moretus family. Christophe Plantin spent his life among books. Together with his wife and five daughters, he lived in an imposing property on Vrijdagmarkt. Plantin and Jan Moretus built up an impressive printing business. Today, this is the only museum in the world to be recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Plan your visit and experience it for yourself

Discover the museum and collection online

Reading room open by appointment

New

The museum in a nutshell

Step into the house and the print shop.

Museum Plantin-Moretus

Unesco werelderfgoed

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