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What to See · Museums

Silk Educational Museum

Ramo di Como

Como →

The Como Silk Museum, born as the Museo didattico della Seta and inaugurated on 4 October 1990, grew from the machines of a Como dyeworks that was about to end up in a landfill and tells the whole cycle of silk: from the silkworm to coloured yarns, from hand printing to finishing. It is in Como, in the same school complex as the Paolo Carcano silk technical institute.

History

At the start of the 1980s the Tintoria Pessina, founded in 1904 by Gaetano Pessina, was bound to close, and its machines for the landfill. The heirs decided instead to keep them and to hand down the memory of silk work in Como. Opposite the dyeworks stood the new buildings of the Technical Industrial Institute of Silk «Paolo Carcano», a school born as support for the silk industry: many other materials were added to the Pessina ones, and around the project gathered the «Amici del ’27» and the association of the school’s former pupils (Wikipedia writes «Classe ’27»). The Province of Como, owner of the school buildings, granted the premises; in 1988 came a contribution from the Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde and in June of that year the Committee for the museum was formed.

The inauguration was on 4 October 1990 and the Association for the Silk Museum of Como was born on 2 April 1992. Regione Lombardia recognised its legal personality in 1999 and the Museum as such in 2004. The complex that houses it is an exposed-concrete building designed by Lorenzo Muzio and Franco Tartaglino Mazzucchelli, who won in 1968 the competition for the school’s new seat; the record of the archive of Lombard architecture gives the construction between 1968 and 1974 and places the museum in the basement.

In 2021, with a regional contribution, the museum started the project «Como sustainable silk city». From June 2023, with PNRR funds for removing physical and cognitive barriers, it renewed its display with solutions for visitors with difficulties and new sensory elements. Today the museum belongs to the Fondazione della Seta ETS, born from the merger of the Fondazione Setificio, the association of former pupils and the Association for the Silk Museum.

What to see

In the atrium the entrance of a factory is recreated, with the time-clock machines. The route follows the stages of the work: silkworm rearing, reeling with a «filandina», throwing, preparation for weaving, the wooden hand looms and the mechanical ones built in Como, the testing and measuring room with the chemical laboratory, dyeing of yarns and fabrics, printing, illustrated by the planches, the screens and the cylinders, and finally finishing. The display is completed by an archive, with books, documents, photographs and sample books of closed firms, and a store of machines; the collection is only partly on show and numbers thousands of pieces, which can be consulted by appointment. One section, «La via della seta», gathers the bands of raw silk skeins imported from Japan and China in the early 1900s.

The museum often hosts temporary shows on fashion, art and costume: from 3 October 2026 to 10 January 2027 the show «Di piega in piega» is on. There are several paths: standard, with or without audio guide, olfactory, in Italian Sign Language, digital with a games web app, tactile.

The sources do not give the same number of rooms. The museum’s website speaks of 1,000 square metres and eight rooms in its FAQ, while on the home page and in the sign-language video it describes a visit «through 10 rooms»; the regional record gives 900 square metres and eight rooms, Oggi a Como over a thousand square metres.

Practical information

  • Address: via Castelnuovo 9, Como (the record of the archive of Lombard architecture gives via Valleggio 3 for the building).
  • Hours, from the museum’s website: Tuesday 2-6 pm, Wednesday to Sunday 10 am-1 pm and 2-6 pm, closed on Monday. The Ministry of Culture portal, updated in 2021, instead reports 3-7 pm Tuesday to Sunday: we go by the museum’s website, but it is best to check.
  • Tickets, from the museum’s website: full 10 euros; reduced 5 euros for under-18s and students; 7 euros for over-65s, residents of Como and some categories; family 7 euros for the parent and 3.50 euros for each child up to 18; groups (10 to 25 people, with a guide in Italian) 7 euros each, schools 5. Free entry, among others, for children under 3, disabled visitors with a companion and holders of the Abbonamento Musei Lombardia. Booking is mandatory for groups and schools (prenota@museosetacomo.com).
  • Audio guide in three languages, small dogs admitted, a shop at the entrance; the museum declares itself fully accessible.
  • Getting there: Como Sud exit from the A9 motorway; Trenord train to Como Nord Borghi or FS to Como San Giovanni; ASF bus line 7, stop San Martino/Università. Parking nearby is paid.

Sources

On the map

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