Textile Museum St. Gallen: A World of Fabrics and Embroidery

The Textile Museum St. Gallen, founded in 1878, stands as a testament to the city's prominent role in the textile industry. Located in the Palazzo Rosso, a historicist building with a distinctive red brick facade, the museum's collections trace the multifaceted history of Swiss textile production from its beginnings to the present day. The museum boasts an impressive collection of around 56,000 objects, including historical embroideries, hand-worked lace, and textiles from outside Europe. Visitors can admire late antique fabrics from Coptic tombs in Egypt, historical embroideries dating back to the 14th century, and handmade lace from major European centers. Ethnographic textiles, historical fabrics and costumes, needlework utensils, and objects of contemporary textile art further enrich the museum's holdings. The museum's library contains over 2,000 sample books with textile patterns from Swiss companies. Publications on lace and embroidery, as well as media on materials, fashion, and design, are also available. The Textile Museum also puts on display costumes from over a hundred years. Beyond its collections, the Textile Museum offers a varied program of events, educational activities, and a shop. Special exhibitions complement the permanent exhibition on the history of textiles in Eastern Switzerland.