World Heritage Identification Number: 1185
World Heritage since: 2005
Category: Cultural Heritage
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇧🇪 Belgium
Continent: Europe
UNESCO World Region: Europe and North America
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A Glimpse into the History of Printing: The Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Complex
The Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Complex, situated in the heart of Antwerp, Belgium, stands as a testament to the rich history of printing and publishing during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005, this complex offers an extraordinary insight into the life and work of one of the most prolific printing and publishing houses in Europe during the late 16th century.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
The Plantin-Moretus Museum is a printing plant and publishing house dating from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Situated in Antwerp, one of the three leading cities of early European printing along with Paris and Venice, it is associated with the history of the invention and spread of typography. Its name refers to the greatest printer-publisher of the second half of the 16th century: Christophe Plantin (c. 1520–89). The monument is of outstanding architectural value. It contains exhaustive evidence of the life and work of what was the most prolific printing and publishing house in Europe in the late 16th century. The building of the company, which remained in activity until 1867, contains a large collection of old printing equipment, an extensive library, invaluable archives and works of art, among them a painting by Rubens.
UNESCO Justification of the World Heritage Site
Criterion (ii): Through the publications of the Officina Plantiniana, the Plantin-Moretus complex is a testimony to the major role played by this important centre of 16th century European humanism in the development of science and culture.
Criterion (iii): Considered as an integral part of the Memory of the World (UNESCO, 2001), the Plantinian Archives, including the business archives of the Officina, the books of commercial accounts and the correspondence with a number of world-renowned scholars and humanists, provide an outstanding testimony to a cultural tradition of the first importance.
Criterion (iv): As an outstanding example of the relationship between the living environment of a family during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the world of work and the world of commerce, the Plantin-Moretus Complex is of unrivalled Documentary value relating to significant periods of European history: the Renaissance, the Baroque era and Classicism.
Criterion (vi): The Plantin-Moretus complex is tangibly associated with ideas, beliefs, technologies and literary and artistic works of outstanding universal significance.
Encyclopedia Record: Plantin–Moretus Museum
The Plantin–Moretus Museum is a printing museum in Antwerp, Belgium which focuses on the work of the 16th-century printers Christophe Plantin and Jan Moretus. It is located in their former residence and printing establishment, the Plantin Press, at the Vrijdagmarkt in Antwerp, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005.Additional Site Details
Area: 0.23 hectares
(iii) — Unique or exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition
(iv) — Outstanding example of a type of building or landscape
(vi) — Directly associated with events or living traditions
Coordinates: 51.21833 , 4.39778
