Museum of Textile Printing

Behind the impressive gates of the town gas works in Premià de Mar, built in 1884, is the only museum in Spain that specialises in textile printing. Some buildings of the gas works remain alongside the purpose-built museum, which opened in 2002. It explains the art and technology of textile printing, its history since the eighteenth century and its significance in the industrialization of Catalunya as a leading centre of textile printing from the 1930s. It shows processes from conceptual drawings to tests, printing blocks, presses and finished textiles. It also looks at the chemistry of colour manufacturing. The displays include printed fabrics, clothing, documentation and photographs. Technological developments are explored from wooden blocks and hand-presses to screen-printing and digital inkjet. There is a reference collection of thousands of examples of printed textiles and an archive and library. It is also a museum for local history and archaeology from prehistory to the present.