Basel Paper Mill

The Basel Paper Mill is a hands-on museum where visitors can experience the historical background to paper and print technologies with all our senses. It has positioneted itself as one of the few museums telling the story from paper to the finished book under one roof. With this broad range, the Basel Paper Mill focuses on one of the driving forces of our history. To enter the museum, you go past the museum restaurant (in the Stegreif Mill, where paper ws made up to 1924). The museum's main building, however, is the Gallizian Mill, named for the original papiermaker. The Museum für Paper, Writing and Printing opened its doors in 1980 as the "Basel Paper Mill". The museum has four storeys available for workshops and exhibits. A tour of the museum starts with paper on the ground floor, then through the history of type and writing to a type foundry in actual production. Next comes the printing of books up to the finished volume, in the bindery on the third upper floor. Today's allocation to different levels - with paper production on the ground floor and the printery in the second upper floor - recalls the situation at the end of the 18th century. Production runs before the visitor's eyes on original machines. Selling the products in the museum shop helps cover the costs. For a first-hand experience of the individual steps in trades now largely vanished, visitors can try doing the jobs themselves in a genuine workshop environment: creating paper, writting their names with a goose quill or pen, on a typewriter or in real type, and setting and printing it themselves. They can also experiment with colourful patterns in the marbling workshop.