Twin collections : Writing & Post office
For you, the sometimes surprising story of writing and mail from antiquity to nowadays
And in the past? How long could that took to him?
What were the dangers of his job? And the means of defence? Since when does the post office exist? Why is the horn the emblem of the profession? Why are there only postwomen in Russia? Was only the Post office used to transport the mail? Since when have the houses a letter-box? How could we disinfect the mail in epidemic periods?
The Postes restantes Museum answers these questions and many others.
Here you can compare the Belgian uniforms with those from France, Russia, Japan, Brazil... and discover the different hats of the postmen: staw hat (Belgian !), caps, kepis, fur hats…
Old telephones also evoke the time when the postal and the phone offices were closely linked.
This museum currently constitutes, in French-speaking Belgium, the only account of postal history (the Brussel's Post office museum was closed in January 2003).
Its name - Postes restantes - evokes thus
- what remains of the post here... and, at the same time,
- a postal service internationally used : the "poste restante" whereby you can send your mail to the main post office of a city and where it is held until you go to remove it (maximum two months).
And as without written messages, there would have no Post...
Authentic and superb objects allow us to go back in the time and recount another history: writing and calligraphy.
Our showcases are full of antique styli, kalamoi, nibs, penknives, inkwells for office, school or travel, bottles of ink, luxurious foutain pens, glass paperweights, etc.
Mechanical and electrical typewriters are present and also three old computers - Model I TRS-80, the first laptop computer (TRS-80 Model 100) and a Macintosh SE from 1987 with a screen size that… dumbfounds our young people.
The museum also presents some calligraphy (from the seventeenth century to the present day) and a beautiful nineteenth-century telegraph recalls another way of writing.
From 3300 BC to nowadays, two interesting aspects of the human history are revealed to you, and remember that the preservation and organization of the postal transport is the only development that has led people to unite without failure since 1878!
Special tours are organized for schools, based on thematic requests of the teachers.
The Postes restantes museum, without being subsidized, is included in the museum collections of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. It appears in the Guide of the museums of the province of Liège. It is also found on the portal of the museums of Wallonia.
It lends documents and objects to other institutions, and the Muséobus as the city Wervik, for example, had recourse to it in 2013.
Showcase of writing objects on loan
in the exhibition Van Messagier tot postbode organized for the city Wervik
by post office workers Luc Decorte and Chantal Rigaut
in Sint-Janskapel, 2013 January .
The museum is located in a remarkable architectural site of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in rooms covered with vaults of the Ferme castrale of Hermalle-sous-Huy.
This square farmhouse, adjoining the castle of Hermalle still surrounded by moats, also includes a gatehouse entrance with an arched portal, surmounted by a tufa loggia dated 1642, and one of the most beautiful barns "in deep" in the Province of Liège. In this monumental space is held every weekend a seconhandsbooks market and are sold duplicate books of the library of the Museum.
The farm is also home to the Gourmet Museum, which tells the story of the gastronomy.
The Ferme castrale is freely available every weekend of the year, Saturday 14 to 18 pm Sunday 11 to 18 hours.
A guided tour of the site can be combined, for groups, with the museums.
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Open all year long - FR / NL / EN
Weekend: Saturday and Sunday for individual visitors and groups, by appointment.
Weekdays: for groups and schools, by appointment.
+32- (0)85 31 42 86
The always guided visit lasts 1 hour 30.
Rates (guide included):
- Adult & child >12 years old : 6,5 €
- Child 5-12 years old: 5 €
- Groups and schools : 6 €/person with minimum 15 persons
- Special ticket Postes restantes Museum + Ferme castrale : 10 €/person with minimum 15 persons
- Special ticket Postes restantes Museum + Gourmet museum + Ferme castrale : 15 €/person with minimum 15 persons
You direct a group...
Please, contact us !
Evidences :
Thanks for the information. I truly enjoyed my visit to Huy to tour the museum and library. The visit was wonderful ans I look forward to returning with my students for another visit. (...) Sincerely
Aubrey Coffee, PhD, Lecturer and Sensory Coordinator, Clemson University, USA, 2008, May 13
I know ans I love this place, aloso I do respect the engagement in cultural events and continued engagement.
I wish all the best.
Ralf R. Ollertz, Berlin, 2008, August