Museo del Tessile e della Tradizione Industriale di Busto Arsizio

The Museum of Textiles and Industrial Tradition was established on 30 January 1997 with the aim of collecting, preserving and enhancing objects, machinery and documents related to the textile sector and other areas of Busto Arsizio's industrial tradition. Its mission is to disseminate the history of textile production, to value the knowledge that has shaped the territory and to promote cultural, educational and informative activities.

The museum is housed in the building that once housed the spinning department of one of the main local manufactures, the Cotonificio Carlo Ottolini, then Bustese, a significant example of industrial archaeology. The spinning mill, probably built between 1891 and 1896, has clear references to the Lombard neo-Gothic style of the period: a brick structure with castellated forms, large ogival windows, anthropomorphic decorations, battlements and towers. Starting in the 1970s, new production needs led to the relocation of activities to the Olona Valley; the Municipality of Busto Arsizio then acquired the entire area, initiating the construction of the public park that still surrounds the former factory today. The building was later carefully restored and turned into a museum of industry, becoming a symbol of the local working tradition.

The exhibition traces all stages of textile fibre processing, from spinning to the packaging of the finished product, with sections devoted to the Jacquard technique, printing and dyeing processes, new fibres, the “captains” of the Busto textile industry and the schirpa, the traditional dowry of the women of the Upper Milanese area. Part of the historical archive of the Borri shoe factory, the Menotti Paracchi photographic studio and the Antonio Ferramini tailor's collection complete the exhibition.