Tapestry and Upholstery Museum, Textile museum in Villa Spada, Bologna, Italy
The Tapestry and Upholstery Museum is a textile museum housed in Villa Spada and contains around 3,000 objects from different periods and regions. The collection spans from finely woven fabrics to elaborately embroidered works and shows the crafting techniques behind them.
Vittorio Zironi (1916–1999), a Bolognese upholsterer, decided during his imprisonment in Germany to create the museum, which was founded in 1946 with fellow artisans. After years of research and donations, it opened on 6 November 1966 in six rooms of Palazzo Salina Brazzetti on via Barberia. On 5 November 1990 it moved to Villa Spada, restored for the purpose; in 2016 the collection was donated to the city and joined the Musei Civici d'Arte Antica.
The museum shows textile craftsmanship in its many forms and how people have designed fabrics for everyday and special occasions over centuries. Walking through the rooms, you notice how regional differences in patterns and techniques remain visible today.
The museum has been closed to the public since September 2018, so visits are not currently possible. It occupies the neoclassical Villa Spada in the Porto-Saragozza district, owned by the City of Bologna since 1964. The building also houses a specialised library and a textile restoration workshop that works on pieces for institutions and private owners.
The museum maintains a photograph archive of past exhibitions that offers insights into the collection's history and conservation practices. This archive is often overlooked, but it shows how the collection has grown and changed over the years.
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