On this basis, one may assume that the existing paper mill is one of the oldest preserved and operational structures of its kind in Europe.

The manufacture of handmade paper was interrupted in 1905, although the production process was later reinstated in 1971, forming a vital part of the museum display.

Both buildings are covered with tall gable roofs featuring a distinctive multi-stepped design, their surfaces clad with wood shingles.

In the mid-18th century, an octagonal entrance pavilion was added on the northern side of the compound, linked to the paper mill building by a wooden covered walkway which spans the river canal beneath.

In the late 18th and early 19th century, the paper mill was redesigned, receiving a highly decorative façade which sets the complex in Duszniki-Zdrój apart from similar structures surviving in Europe today.

Both the walls and the ceiling of this part of the edifice are adorned with painted decorations which were first discovered in 1969 and then subjected to conservation works in the years 1986-87.

The use of decorations of this kind inside what was still, in the essence, a manufacturing facility harking back to the era when the industrial revolution was still a long way off is truly unique and has no counterparts anywhere else in Europe.

The assumption of the Paper Festival is providing the visitors’ active participation in the workshops and the possibility of taking the effects of their work home.

It is characteristic for its shingle roofing trimmed with a baroque volute from the west and the original entrance pavilion and the 17-19th century wall paintings in the interior.

The tradition of papermaking in Duszniki dates back to the 16th century; the first record about the paper mill comes from 1562, and tells about the sale of his shares in the moulding room by Ambrosius Tepper to Nicolas Kretschmer.

Water washed the foundations of the drying room and deposited tons of mud and debris inside the building.