Speelkaartmuseum

Northeast Belgium


Celebrating Turnhout’s role as one of the world’s largest producers of playing cards (1.3 million packs per day), this extensive museum displays a range of antique industrial printing machines used in card creation, including a vast steam-powered drive wheel.

The guillotine draws attention to French revolutionary times when anti-royalist sentiment went as far as to remove kings and queens from the pack. The newest exhibits show 21st-century technological advances including UV-sensitive inks for clarity in low light.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Northeast Belgium attractions

1. Turnhout Castle

0.39 MILES

Turnhout was founded as an 11th-century hunting retreat for the Hertog (Duke) of Brabant. By the 13th century their lodge had developed into the moated…

2. Taxandria

0.41 MILES

Guarded by a cannon, the spired, 16th-century Matten Thoren mansion hosts this lovable city history museum whose mishmash of art and artefacts range from…

3. Turnhout Begijnhof

0.49 MILES

Hidden behind big wooden gates, one of Belgium’s loveliest begijnhoven loops round a long, narrow garden set with a grotto, church and religious statues…

4. Begijnhof Museum

0.62 MILES

In a 1688 convent-house, this excellent little museum introduces the life of a begijn starting with an eight-minute video (English available) and a…

5. Baarle-Nassau

8.51 MILES

Together Baarle Nassau (NL) and Baarle Hertog (B) form an extraordinary geopolitical quirk divided by the world's messiest border jigsaw: 22 miniature…

6. St-Katherinakerk

9.93 MILES

Hoogstraten's fabulous belfry is an enormous 105m-tall red-brick edifice picked out with dots of white-stone detail in a style known as speklagen. Dating…

7. Laermolen

9.97 MILES

In an idyllic rural location on the northeast edge of town, Laermolen is small but still functioning watermill dating from 1381.

8. Hoogstraten Begijnhof

10 MILES

With two leafy quadrangles of pretty whitewashed houses and a remarkably oversized baroque chapel, this peaceful spot is one of Flanders' least-known…

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting:
    {
      "url": "belgium/turnhout/attractions/speelkaartmuseum/a/poi-sig/1261375/1325160",
      "destination": "Northeast-Belgium",
      "continent": "Europe",
      "country": "Belgium",
      "region": "Northeast-Belgium",
      "position": "superzone"
    }