Filatoio Rosso di Caraglio

About the museum

The Filatoio of Caraglio was built from 1676 by Giovanni Gerolamo Galleani and completed in under two years. The complex stands beside the Celleri spring, which supplied the water needed for the throwing machines, and is divided into three inner courtyards built at different times; the white circular towers at the corners give it the look of a small castle. In the mid-18th century new buildings were added, including a larger silk-reeling workshop, warehouses for cocoons and a dormitory for the young women employed in reeling.

It is considered the oldest silk manufacturing complex in Europe to combine reeling and throwing, a Piedmontese innovation that improved the quality of organzine and anticipated the “sistema fabbrica” (factory system). The Galleani family, important throughout the Piedmontese silk sector, introduced hydraulic throwing mills of the Bolognese model. The property remained in the same family for about two hundred years; from 1857 it passed to the Cassin family.

Today the building, restored for museum and exhibition purposes, houses the Museo del Setificio Piemontese, the permanent heart of the Filatoio. The route, visitable only with a guided tour, reconstructs the equipment of the silk chain, from the small reeling furnace for cocoons to the winding and doubling machines, up to the imposing hydraulic throwing mills, reproduced according to the models in use between the mid-17th and 18th centuries in their original setting.

Highlights

• Hydraulic silk-throwing machines after the Bolognese model
• Reconstruction of the production chain, from cocoon to organzine
• Small reeling furnace, winding machine (incannatoio) and doubling machine (binatoia)
• Seventeenth-century complex with three courtyards and white circular towers
• Example of industrial archaeology and of the Piedmontese “fabbrica magnifica”

Permanent exhibition

• Museo del Setificio Piemontese – Permanent route with reconstructions of the equipment for producing silk thread and of the large hydraulic throwing machines.

Operated by

Fondazione Artea (per il Comune di Caraglio)

Visitors per year

approx. 9,913

Admission & discounts

The rate includes the guided tour of the Museo del Setificio Piemontese. Free admission also for holders of the Abbonamento Musei or the Torino+Piemonte Card, for qualified Piedmontese tourist guides, journalists and holders of an ICOM card; residents of Caraglio enter free on Sunday mornings.

Accessibility

• Wheelchair accessible: no information
• Elevator: no information
• Accessible restroom: no information
• Accessible parking: no information
• Service dogs welcome
• Tactile models & exhibits: no information
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials: no information
• Audio description: no information

Guide dogs and assistance dogs are always admitted; other dogs only if small, carried or in a carrier.

Kids & families

Great for kids & families

• Family tours & workshops
• Hands-on stations

For primary and lower secondary schools a weaving workshop with small hand looms is available.

Getting there & parking

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Amenities & dining

• Café
• Restaurant

The site has a café and in-house catering, and a tourist office (Porta di Valle) with local produce and crafts.

Events & venue rental

• Spaces for rent
• Private parties
• Corporate events
• Weddings / ceremonies

Up to 250 guests.

Sala delle Colonne (250 people) and conference room (80 seats), with courtyards; bookings at cultura.istruzione@comune.caraglio.cn.it.

Plan your visit