A Multisensory Journey
The museum route unfolds through the sixteenth-century Town Hall and several nearby spaces, including the Weaving Workshops. The visit offers an engaging and immersive experience, taking visitors on a journey through memory, the transmission of traditional knowledge and contemporary creativity.
A Journey into the Past through Tools and Textiles
The first section is devoted to the hemp production cycle. Through a rich collection of original tools dating from the first half of the twentieth century, visitors can follow every stage of fibre processing, from the cultivation of the plant to the production of yarn. The experience is enhanced by a series of video installations featuring the testimonies from local hemp growers, rope makers and weavers. Their voices preserve the collective memory of the community, bringing to life the gestures, skills and stories of a world that has now disappeared.
The museum also houses an important textile collection, made up mainly of objects donated over the years by the people of Sant’Anatolia di Narco and by families who have visited the museum. The collection showcases fabrics made from different fibres, each intended for specific domestic uses. Hemp and cotton were woven into cloth for bed linen, towels and kitchen cloths, many of which became part of a bride’s trousseau. Linen, softer and finer, was reserved mainly for layettes for newborns, including cloth nappies, swaddling bands and baby wraps.
Woollen textiles are also well represented. Often produced by families engaged in sheep farming, wool was woven into sturdy blankets for the winter months. This material was considered so valuable that worn fabrics were rarely discarded; instead, they were reused to create practical striped cloths in different colours, many of which were used as traditional bread covers.
Stories of Ancient Looms and “Spinning Dolls”
The upper floor of the museum is dedicated to hand weaving and to the stories preserved by the tools on display. In the evocative Room of the Threads (Stanza delle Trame) stands one of the museum’s most important exhibits: a remarkable late eighteenth-century loom complete with its warping frame, once belonging to a family from the nearby village of Caso.
Acquired by the municipal collections in the late 1970s, it is the only surviving "working" loom discovered in Sant’Anatolia di Narco. It offers tangible evidence of a time when weaving was an integral part of domestic life, while also bearing witness to the gradual disappearance of this craft following the spread of industrial textiles and synthetic fibres.
The museum does more than preserve historical artefacts: it also recovers and reinterprets traditional practices from a contemporary perspective. The exhibition concludes with an installation by the British artist Liliane Lijn. Through her Spinning Dolls—metaphorical "spinning dolls" composed of layered hemp fabric and crochet work that unfold and seem almost to come alive—she offers a poetic reflection on the very meaning of weaving and spinning.
The work draws inspiration from the double meaning of the word spinning, which refers both to rotation and to the act of spinning fibres. From this interplay of meanings emerges a richly layered metaphor that revolves—both literally and symbolically—around the world of textiles and thread, from the ancient knowledge traditionally associated with women to the mythical and divine realm evoked by the Fates, the legendary spinners of human destiny. The result is a contemporary artwork that creates a dialogue between memory, art and the present day.
The Weaving Workshop: Living Heritage and a Space for Research
Adjacent to the exhibition galleries is the Weaving Workshop, a place for encounter, experimentation and creative production, where weaving is not simply a legacy of the past but a living craft that continues to evolve.
Several handlooms allow visitors to observe traditional weaving techniques at close range, understand the mechanics of textile production and watch skilled artisans create handmade fabrics. The workshops also host collaborations with artists, designers, universities and research centres, helping to keep this tradition alive through new forms of experimentation and creative exchange.
These spaces also showcase one of the most innovative contemporary uses of hemp: sustainable construction. The workshops have been renovated according to the principles of green architecture and feature hemp-and-lime plaster, providing a tangible example of the sustainable potential of this natural material. This commitment earned the museum the prestigious Green Heart Quality label, recognising its role not only in preserving traditional knowledge but also in promoting awareness of both the traditional and the most innovative, sustainable uses of hemp today.
A Museum in Constant Evolution
The Hemp Museum is a dynamic institution, continuously engaged in developing new projects and initiatives aimed at enhancing and promoting its cultural heritage. Among its most significant acquisitions is the Cardarelli Collection, an important private collection of antique sewing machines donated in 2019 by the heirs of Consalvo Cardarelli, a collector and patron from Spoleto.
The collection includes numerous machines dating from the mid-nineteenth to the twentieth century, offering valuable insight to the technological and artisanal evolution of domestic sewing. The machines have recently undergone careful restoration.
The preservation and promotion of this remarkable legacy will lead to the creation of a new museum wing, where the collection will be permanently displayed, allowing visitors to appreciate each individual piece for its technical, decorative and historical significance.
For more information, please visit the Hemp Museum website.
