"Tela Umbra" Textile Museum
In the museum-workshop of the textile Collection of Umbrian Textiles of Città di Castello, located in the Tommasini Palace formally of Bourbon del Monte There is a exhibit of craft work of great importance which documents the history of textiles in the Upper Tiber Valley. Umbrian renaissance tablecloths, tapestries, rugs, bobbin lace, textiles made completely by hand on antique looms, fabric with original designs and ordinary fabric from the renaissance, beyond that a series of instruments specifically for working with textiles such as looms, spinning wheels, and reels. The textile workshop was founded by Alice Hallgarten and her husband Barron Leopoldo Franchetti at the beginning of the 1900s. The workshop continues to produce handmade textiles with the same techniques and tools of the time. Other than the foundation of Textile workshop in the Tommasini Palace (1908) she founded the Montesca School (1901) as well as one in Rovigliano (1903) where the innovative teaching methods of Maria Montessori a friend or the Baroness Franchetti were used. Inside the Umbria Textile museum you can also visit a classroom set up with original furnishings.