Museum of Textiles and Industry – Busto Arsizio

Name: Museum of Textiles and Industry – Busto Arsizio
Start: 2020-01-01
End: 2025-05-31
Location: Busto Arsizio (Varese)

Looms and tools for spinning, weaving and printing fabrics. Library. Open all year long

Textile and Industrial Tradition Museum - Busto Arsizio- Lombardy - Italy

All year long Lombardia -Busto Arsizio (Varese) Art-Culture-History | Exhibits-Museums-Visits

The Museum of Textiles and Industry, located in Busto Arsizio, in the province of Varese, is hosted in the former spinning department of Carlo Ottolini Cotton Mill, one of the main factories in the area and an important example of industrial archeology.

The building is a neo-Gothic style red brick castle with pointed windows, crenelated turrets and towers.

The spinning department was founded between 1891 and 1896.
After the 1970s, the spinning activities were transferred to Valle Olona and the abandoned factory was acquired by the Municipality of Busto Arsizio, which, after a careful restoration, founded the Museum of Textiles and Industry in 1997 and also created the public park that still surrounds the castle.

The museum’s exhibition path extends over three floors.
On the ground floor, there are rooms dedicated to spinning, weaving and finishing, with large looms and the huge Beetle (mangano) dating back to the 10s-20s.

On the first floor of the Museum, the light that enters from the high and large ogival windows reflects on the looms for Jacquard processing, a particular weaving system for the production of decorated fabrics invented in 1805 by Joseph Marie Jacquard. A second area displays the tools used in the marking, packaging and shipping of the swatches. Here is the Hall of Experiences, an educational laboratory where visitors can see and touch the different steps from the cotton staple to the finished fabric.

Part of the second floor is dedicated to the historical evolution of the dyeing and printing processes of fabrics. In the large central hall, visitors can admire various examples of high fashion such as the schirpa, the traditional dowry of brides in the Alto Milanese area, made up of beautiful hand-embroidered garments and fabrics.
The last room is instead dedicated to innovative fibers, modern artificial and synthetic yarns used in the aerospace industry (with the suit of astronaut Franco Malerba), in sports (like the seat of a Formula 1 Lotus Type 106 used by Mika Häkkinen), and in high fashion (as in the Il Fuoco evening dress from Gattinoni collection).

The purpose of the museum is to collect, preserve and enhance objects, machines, products and documents related to the local textile industry and other sectors of the industrial tradition of Busto.

USEFUL INFORMATION
Free entry
Opening hours
– Tuesday to Thursday from 2.30pm> 6.00pm
– Friday from 9.30am> 1.00pm and in the afternoon 2.30pm> 6.00pm
– Saturday from 2.30pm> 6.30pm
– Sunday from 3.00pm> 6.30pm
For any change on opening hours please check the website>>>
It is recommended to wear a safety mask and to keep an interpersonal distance of at least 1 meter.