Imprimerie du Fourneau Saint-Michel

‘Fourneau Saint-Michel’ is the name of a series of museums in Saint-Hubert – Belgium. One of them is an open air museum about the rural life in the south of Belgium. Their collection of old buildings includes a small print shop or ‘imprimerie’. It really is a tiny place – one single room that is barely big enough to hold a press and some type case cabinets.

I don't think the press is still in working order.

Here is a detail from that press, showing the poster that is ready to be printed.

Look at the ingenious way the type is kept in place.

It was a beautiful day and light was streaming through the large windows.

Type in a melting pan, waiting to be recast.

It was pretty difficult to take decent shots of the room, so let’s finish with a picture from the building down the road. Back in the 1920′s this small school may have been a customer of the Imprimerie.

Pupils of all ages together in one single classroom.