For more than three centuries, scholars and book-collectors crossed the Vrijdagmarkt in the heart of Antwerp to visit the famous printing house founded by Christopher Plantin in 1555.
The French-born entrepreneur carved out a niche in Antwerp by publishing books in a wide range of languages, including a massive five-language edition of the Bible.
After Plantin died, the printing house passed to his son-in-law Jan Moretus. It remained in the family until 1865 when Edward Moretus persuaded Antwerp council to take over the ancient printing works to create a city museum. In 1944, the building was almost obliterated when a V-2 rocket ripped apart the Vrijdagmarkt.
Rebuilt after the war, the unique printing house is a fascinating warren of Renaissance and Baroque rooms and courtyards, including a printing workshop filled with massive wooden presses, a proof-readers’ room where employees picked out spelling mistakes, an attic hideaway where type was cast from molten lead, and a bookshop where customers from all over Europe came to buy precious volumes.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
