Tela Umbra — Mostra permanente e laboratorio storico di tessitura

Tela Umbra was founded in 1908 by Alice Hallgarten and Leopoldo Franchetti to preserve hand-loom weaving. The workshop in Città di Castello continues to produce linen textiles, while its museum in Palazzo Alberti Tomassini presents Renaissance table linen, bobbin lace, weaving tools and a recreated classroom from the Franchetti schools.

Why it matters

Tela Umbra joins a working hand-loom workshop with a museum collection documenting the craft and its social history. Founded by the barons Alice Hallgarten and Leopoldo Franchetti, the project provided employment for women under conditions that were unusual for the period, including a nursery within the workshop. The permanent collection, established with the support of the Umbria Region and the municipality, occupies nine rooms of Palazzo Alberti Tomassini.

What to notice

The collection on the palace's upper floor ranges from Renaissance Umbrian table linen to decorated bands, popular-tradition textiles and bobbin lace, with period looms and weaving tools. One room recreates a classroom from the rural schools the Franchettis founded at La Montesca in 1901 and Rovigliano in 1902, with old desks, inkwells and teaching instruments. In the workshop, linen is woven on traditional looms using patterns and techniques including spolinato, quadruccio umbro and occhio di pernice. The linen yarns come from Flanders and Ireland.

Context and history

Umbrian weaving was an important export in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and its textiles appear in Renaissance paintings. Tela Umbra was created in 1908 to sustain that tradition as industrial cloth spread. Leopoldo Franchetti was a senator and investigator of southern Italian conditions; Alice Hallgarten Franchetti promoted progressive schooling in the countryside around Città di Castello. The workshop's employment of women and its nursery formed part of this broader social programme. Its cooperative structure continues the craft tradition, while the museum preserves its history.