Abbadia Lariana

Civico Museo Setificio Monti

The Monti silk mill as it was in the mid-nineteenth century, its 1818 throwing machine working again.

Visit duration: 45 min – 1 h 15
Booking: Not required
Area: Lecco Branch

Fuljack · CC BY-SA 4.0

Fuljack · CC BY-SA 4.0
Fuljack · CC BY-SA 4.0

Why go

Around 1818 the silk maker Pietro Monti turned an old fulling mill at Abbadia, with its millrace and water wheel, into a throwing mill where silk thread was twisted.

Throwing went on until 1934; the municipality bought the buildings in 1978 and opened them as a museum in 1998. At its centre stands the great circular throwing machine of 1818: sold in 1965 and given to the Technorama in Winterthur, it came back on loan after a quarter of a century, restored and in working order.

A factory with its machines still in place.
It explains silk, which kept the lake's villages alive before tourism did.

Highlights

The circular throwing machine of 1818
The three rectangular throwing machines of 1869
The great restored water wheel

Getting there

Train to Abbadia Lariana on the Lecco–Colico line: the station is seven minutes' walk away.
By car along the old main road through the village, Via Nazionale.

Accessibility

The entrance has no architectural barriers.
Disabled visitors can come in through the inner courtyard, by arranging it with the museum by phone beforehand.