Giuditta Brozzetti Textile Workshop
The Giuditta Brozzetti workshop in Perugia is Italy’s last surviving manufacturer of hand-woven medieval Umbrian textiles, operating since 1921 from a deconsecrated 13th-century church, San Francesco delle Donne. The atelier produces the famed Perugia towel — a cotton-and-linen fabric decorated with geometric patterns in two or three colours documented in Italian paintings from the 14th century — alongside other traditional Umbrian weaves, using an unbroken chain of apprenticeship and historical looms.
At a glance
- Type
- Historic hand-loom atelier and living textile heritage site
- Period
- Founded 1921; housed in a 13th-century Gothic church building
- Style
- Medieval Umbrian weaving traditions: Perugia towel (telo perugino), merletto patterns
- Location
- Via Tiberio Berardi 5–6, Perugia, Umbria — 43.1173° N, 12.3835° E
Overview
Perugia has been a centre of textile production since the Middle Ages, and the Perugia towel (telo perugino) became one of the most recognisable luxury goods of 14th–16th-century Italy, exported across Europe and depicted in paintings by Giotto, Raphael, and other masters. The Brozzetti family revived and codified this tradition in the early 20th century, re-establishing hand-loom production in the former church of San Francesco delle Donne, whose Gothic nave provides both workspace and exhibition room. Today the workshop is managed by Marta Cucchia, representing a fourth generation of weavers.
History
Giuditta Brozzetti founded the atelier in 1921 with the explicit mission of preserving Umbrian hand-weaving techniques that industrial textile mills had rendered commercially unviable. She sourced historical pattern books and cartoons from museum collections and private archives, then trained a small team of weavers on period-appropriate looms. The decision to locate the workshop inside San Francesco delle Donne — a 13th-century mendicant church suppressed in the Napoleonic era — gave the enterprise both space and a resonant medieval setting that matched the antiquity of the craft. The family line and the workshop continued through the 20th century, surviving both world wars, and was formally recognised as a heritage craft enterprise by Italian cultural authorities.
What you see
Inside the Gothic hall, a dozen or more floor-to-ceiling wooden hand-looms stand in rows, their heddles threaded with cotton and linen warp. Weavers can be observed at work producing the characteristic geometric border motifs — pomegranate, griffin, and interlace patterns — that distinguish the Perugia towel from other Italian weaves. The shop adjoining the weaving room displays the finished pieces: runners, tablecloths, scarves, and towels in natural undyed linen and coloured cotton, each bearing a hand-sewn label attesting to its origin and the weaver’s name.
Cultural significance
The Brozzetti workshop is one of the rare Italian craft enterprises where an unbroken living tradition can be directly observed, traced back through documented apprenticeship records to its 1921 re-founding and, through pattern continuity, to medieval guild production. The Perugia towel motifs it preserves appear in celebrated paintings in the Uffizi and the Louvre, giving the workshop a direct material link to the canon of European art history.
Practical information
- Address
- Via Tiberio Berardi 5–6, 06123 Perugia PG
- Opening hours
- Monday–Friday 09:00–13:00 and 15:30–18:30 (verify on official website before visiting)
- Admission
- Free to visit the workshop and shop; guided demonstrations may be arranged
- Coordinates
- 43.1173° N, 12.3835° E
Getting there
Perugia is served by Perugia San Francesco d’Assisi Airport (PEG) with connections to several European cities. The city centre is accessible by the Minimetro automated rail from Pian di Massiano station. The workshop is located in the lower historic centre, reachable on foot from Piazza Italia via the escalators or from the Porta Eburnea area. Parking is available outside the city walls.