Parco del Lago Trasimeno

06069 Isola Maggiore (PG)

Municipality: Tuoro sul Trasimeno

Region: Umbria

The lace also called "pizzo d'irlanda" or "pizzo d'isola" is manufactured with a technique born in the irish monasteries in the first half of the 19th century, and it consists in using the crochet hook to imitate the methods to produce the lace realized with needles and the "fuselli", that are small wooden tools.
This type of lace is characterized by flower patterns such as roses or squared and round stars, leaves, bunches of grapes and clovers, all linked together by a thick and thin network. It was the Marchioness Elena Guglielmi that introduced this technique in Maggiore Island, and in 1904 she founded a school to teach the fishermen's daughters the lace handicraft. She entrusted a skilled irish woman with the job of teaching this art to the local women who still sit on the doorstep of their houses to manufacture doilies, tablecloths, decorations for sheets. The school existed until the 1930s and it was directed by Elvira Tosetti de Sanctis. It was then reopened by Maria Vittoria Semolesti in 1963 through the establishment of the "Cooperative Association of Women manufacturing and selling the laces".

The Lace Museum, situated in Isola Maggiore, documents the history of this production with the display of manufactures and tools that, since 1904, have marked the history of this activity. "Pizzo di Isola" or "pizzo d'Irlanda" is the most refined form of craftsmanship of the lake, the handiworks kept in the museum show a collection of several sheets, pillowcases, doilies, handkerchiefs, tablecloths, clothes, collars and gloves.