The Colombo Mill is placed on the urban bank of the river Lambro, in a context still concealed at the eyes of the hurried passer-by in the city historic centre. It is a rare example of an ancient productive building which preserves almost intact its setting and tools, so that it is possible to track the signs of the last work that had been carried out there. Operating since the beginning of the 18th century, the mill was originally used to grind the wheat and then to full the wool and at last as an olive-press.

Visiting its interiors, allows you to look up close the different working machines and tools in a place that conserves the charm of old times and tells the story of an important and significant activity, which developed along the river Lambro. Its waters had been in the past centuries the only motor power for manufacturing production.  

Thanks to Colombos donation, today the Mill houses the Ethnological Museum of Monza and Brianza, a rich collection to revive the old manufacturing traditions and the ancient social and family life of Monza’s citizens. The Museum collects the objects connected to the manufacturing, but also to the promotion, of hats, looms and models of the local textile industries and memories of disappearing jobs. The historical events of the 19th and 20th centuries just appear in the documents which tell the atmosphere, the spirit of the common people and the agreement - sometimes convinced and other times resigned - of the folk to the relevant episodes of the history. A thorough female tale, instead, is that about family relations and feelings and about the domestic sphere, shown by means of various objects transmitted by the then women.

Visit the Ethnological Museum of Monza and Brianza

TUESDAYS and THHURSDAYS
10.00am - 12.00pm

WEDNESDAYS
4.00pm - 6.00pm

Free entry

Contacts 
Tel./Fax +39 039 2304400
Email: museo@memb.it