Museo Etnográfico Textil Pérez Enciso Plasencia

DEPENDENT OF THE EXCMA. DIPUTATION OF CÁCERES.  The Provincial Ethnographic Textile Museum is located in the old Santa María Hospital, today a Cultural Complex of the same name. Its construction begins in the fourteenth century and ends in the eighteenth, being first property of the Monroy family will then depend on the Bishopric of Plasencia and finally, in the mid-nineteenth century, Provincial Council. It will be this Provincial institution which in 1984 decides to dedicate the building for cultural purposes and undertakes the rehabilitation of the entire property, which will open its doors in 1987.

      In 1985, the intervention in the area dedicated to the Museum began, corresponding to the extension carried out in the 18th century, under the auspices of Bishop Laso, and of which the magnificent vaults of exposed brick that the architect has rescued with good criterion. The rest of the rehabilitation has maintained modernity criteria creating spacious and modern museum spaces enhanced by the assembly carried out.    The fundamental fund of the Museum is the second collection collected by the Pedro D. Enciso from the Placentino and acquired by Diputación. With its eighty percent of popular products from Caceres, it wants to pay a small tribute to the people, highlighting the importance of its contribution to the cultural and artistic enrichment of the Region that, in general, has been forgotten before historical and cultural events of "greater importance "

   TEXTILE ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM Diputación de Cáceres Plaza Marqués de la Puebla s / n 10600 PLASENCIA (Cáceres) Tlf .: (927) 42.18.43 / 41.14.35. Fax: (927) 40.20.02    SCHEDULE Wednesdays to Saturdays, 11 to 14 and from 17 to 20 Sundays and holidays, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, closed. JULY AND AUGUST: From Monday to Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sundays and holidays closed

DIRECTORY ENTRY Selection of objects and photographs that provide a general idea about the funds of the Museum. FIRST FLOOR    ROOM I MANUFACTURE OF WOOL: manufacturing process and its tools. Textile products and their use in the usual tasks: agricultural, livestock and domestic. Diverse objects of daily life: pottery, ceramics, copper.    ROOM II POPULAR CLOTHING: costume of montehermoso, Cabezabellosa and Torrejoncillo. The different pieces that make up the popular costumes: skirts, pouches, stockings, shoes, caps, blankets, shirts, handkerchiefs, pants, vests, jackets, garters, chias, tops, etc. SECOND FLOOR    ROOM III LINEN AND HOMEWORK: shirts, petticoats, ruffs, barberas, towels, front, bedspreads, bedding sets, ritual cloths, etc.    ROOM IV TEXTILE ARTS ERUDITAS: fabrics and lace of silk, silver and gold in their use in the court dress and in sacred ornaments.

     The first room is dedicated to the MANUFACTURE OF WOOL. The manufacturing process of fabrics is reflected in the necessary tools: clubs, scrapers, spindles, winding machines, spinning wheels and looms, while the high quality of the fabrics left from the looms can be seen in bedspreads, blankets, saddlebags , tapijos, etc. that are distributed throughout the room. Next to the wool, a selection of objects for domestic, agricultural and livestock use-farm tines, weights and measures, pieces of pottery, pestles, copper cauldrons-, together with the reproduction of a bed of views, offer us a shallow vision of the popular way of life.     CERAMICS plays an important role. Along with the traditional pottery, beautifully represented by that coming from Arroyo de la Luz and dated in the sixteenth century, the most decorative ceramics of Talavera de la Reina, Puente del Arzobispo, Manises, etc., commonly used in our lands.      In the second room, the use of woolen fabrics in the TI-PICA CLOTHING of some towns in Cáceres-Montehermoso, Cabezabellosa and Torrejoncillo-and of bordering areas of the provinces of Toledo and Salamanca, provide the possibility of checking the personality of our traditional costumes, as well as loans from other areas. The costume of Montehermoso is the best represented and best known of our province. In addition to the number of sayas-up to 7-, we must highlight her blue wool stockings and her cap with a symbolism that indicates the woman's marital status.      The costume of Cabezabellosa is a wedding dress and in front of the rest of the people of Cáceres stands out for its color and the use of polychrome embroidery and beads more typical of nearby Salamanca.      From the suit of Torrejoncillo stands out the handkerchief of "Gajos", characterized by the baroque applications in prominence that form the typical floral decoration, which has given it its name.            The third room is distributed around the LINEN and the different pieces of home furnishings, demonstrating the variety and perfection of the techniques used and the enormous creative imagination of the woman from Caceres, who managed to elevate this type of work to the category of work of art. Laying, embroidery and lace are the decorative techniques commonly used in towels, shirts, petticoats, barberas, bedding and tablecloths. The transit rites -birth, wedding, death- had their characteristic cloths, profusely decorated with symbolic motifs referring to the moment.

     The ERUDITAS TEXTILE ARTS, that is, not popular, occupy the fourth room. Silk fabrics, embroidery and lace in silver and gold were the basis of the court clothing and sacred ornaments. Among the courtly, highlights the women's shirt of the Castilian court of the sixteenth century.

     Within the magnificent collection of lace that the Museum preserves, stands out the lace blanket from Granada that represents the Rendición de Granada, a magnificent copy that copies Pradilla's painting, currently in the Palacio de Congresos de Madrid and dated around 1882.

     Among the religious undoubtedly the fragments of the pontifical of Fernando VI, commissioned by this monarch to the royal embroiderer Antonio Gómez de los Ríos and dated to the end of the eighteenth century. The embroidery, polychrome and made of gold, pearl and pearls, is entirely Baroque and an admirable performance in terms of the realism it gives to the scenes of the Old Testament represented.