Gutenberg Museum

The museum celebrates the story of printing from its beginning with Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz in the 1430s. It opened first in Bern in 1900 but it moved to Fribourg in 2000. The oldest part of the museum’s beautiful stone and timber building dates from around 1475, when it was the first granary of the city. It was later a tobacco factory and a fire station. Life-size figures bring the crafts of printing to life with displays about book production before and after Gutenberg, printing techniques, type design and manufacture and techniques for reproducing images. Examples of equipment for printing and binding are displayed, from the earliest technology to a linotype typesetting machine. A special display shows the history of Swiss banknotes. The organisation also holds the collection of the typographer Emil Jenzer and a library and archive. A working studio helps visitors to learn with their own hands.

Gutenberg Museum
Musée Gutenberg
Liebfrauenplatz 16
1700 Fribourg
Switzerland
+41 (0) 26 - 3473828
Homepage