Photo: Rosario Scollo · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Museo del Tombolo

Museum in Mirabella Imbaccari, at Palazzo Biscari, dedicated to bobbin lace, with wedding trousseaux and works by the local lacemakers.

Opening hours unknown

Directions

About the museum

The Museo del Tombolo in Mirabella Imbaccari opened in 2012 to collect and preserve the heritage of bobbin lace, a tradition that earned the town the title of “Città del Tombolo”. The craft was introduced to the town by Princess Angelina Auteri; in 1910 some nuns who came from Rome began teaching it at Palazzo Biscari, which became a centre for lacemakers. Bobbin lace gave women an economic role and supported many families; several men also learned the technique.

In the late 1980s the municipality set up a permanent exhibition to promote the tradition and protect the lacemakers from middlemen; the museum developed out of that exhibition. Palazzo Biscari, which passed to the Suore Dorotee (Dorothean Sisters), has belonged to the Fondazione MeSSInA since 2014, and the museum occupies about 700 square metres.

The route has an anthropological approach and follows the stages of life, from childhood to marriage, with wedding trousseaux and the lacemakers' handwork. The museum belongs to the Rete dei Musei comunali della Sicilia (network of Sicilian municipal museums); the municipality, the Fondazione MeSSInA and the lacemakers' association support the bid to have bobbin lace inscribed as UNESCO intangible cultural heritage.