Slutsk Sashes

From the 1750s a manufactory at Slutsk, set up under Michal Kazimierz Radziwill, wove silk sashes to be worn with the kontusz, the outer coat of the nobility of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: several metres long, woven with silk, silver and gold thread in four faces so that the sash could be folded to show different sides according to occasion, with a maker's mark woven into the end. They became the most prized textile of the region and the name Slutsk attached to the type. The manufactory closed in 1846 and the technique was lost. A programme from 2012 rebuilt looms and reconstructed the weaving, and a museum and working workshop in Slutsk now show both originals and new work.

What you actually see

• Original sashes - the surviving eighteenth-century examples in the museum.
• The rebuilt looms - the reconstructed weaving equipment in operation.
• The four faces - the folding and the different sides of the sash.
• New weaving - the pieces produced by the revived workshop.

When to go

Year round; the museum and workshop keep daytime hours and close on Mondays. Weekdays are when weaving is demonstrated. Booking helps for a working demonstration.

Honest expectations

Very few original sashes survive in the country and the museum's holdings are limited. The workshop is a modern reconstruction of the technique. Demonstrations depend on the day. Labelling is in Belarusian and Russian.

Nearby

Minsk lies north; Nesvizh is west.