VIRTUOSITY IN GORIZIA: the threaded history of the Gorizia Lace School

VIRTUOSITY IN GORIZIA: the threaded history of the Gorizia Lace School THE EXHIBITION The heritage safeguarded by ERPAC, the Regional Authority for Cultural Heritage in the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, includes Gorizia lace, an art form and a centuries-old technique which is a unique feature of the history, culture and creativity of Gorizia. This exhibition aims to give visitors a comprehensive overview of the history and evolution of the Gorizia Lace School, which has promoted and raised awareness about lace production since it was founded.

Section 1: The Gorizia Boarding School and the Ursulines The first part of the exhibition highlights the important role of the Ursulines, the nuns who introduced the art of bobbin lace when they moved to Gorizia in 1672. The boarding school connected to their monastery (called the ‘external school’) attracted up to 100 students when it opened, as it was the only educational institute for girls at the time. Whether part of the monastic community or local residents, the pupils learned how to make embroidery and lace, and the items they made were then sold, constituting an important source of income. 

The Company of Saint Ursula was founded by Angela Merici in Brescia in 1530 and then spread throughout Europe—France, the Netherlands and German provinces in particular. The monastery in Gorizia was an offshoot, via Liège and Vienna, of the one in Bordeaux. The Ursulines arrived in Gorizia on the evening of 8 April 1672, tasked with setting up a monastery dedicated mainly to the education of young women, regardless of their socio-economic background. Under the mantle of Saint Ursula, a modest abode in the heart of the city soon became a centre which hosted and welcomed nuns, thanks to the competent management of resources and the acquisition of nearby buildings.

The institution quickly enriched its assets, also benefiting from the dowries of new pupils coming from noble families and humble origins alike. In the county, the Ursulines were nevertheless remembered for the education they provided: in addition to running a boarding school, which was open those who didn’t aspire to monastic life, they also operated an external school for female students coming from different social backgrounds, offering them an education which ranged from religion to reading, from writing to ‘women’s work’. The school was a success, but its buildings were severely damaged by bombs during the Great War.

The nuns were forced to move to the outskirts of the city, where they remained until 2017, when the last nuns remaining left Gorizia. The incredible heritage accumulated over those 300 years lives on in the city, as the archive was purchased by the archdiocese, the manuscripts were acquired by the library and the paintings, furniture and textile collection went to ERPAC, which is now the guardian and promotor of this invaluable patrimony. Section 2: The Vienna Central Programme for Lace The link between the Holy Roman Empire, the Habsburg Monarchy and lace has been lost to the mists of time, but we know that women made lace for their clothing with needle and bobbin techniques as early as the 15th century. Maria Theresa, who became ruler of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1740, was portrayed in 1755 with a dress made entirely of bobbin lace. 

Lace became very fashionable and Maria Theresa elevated it to the rank of a free profession. In 1806, Francis I had the first lacemaking school opened in Vienna, followed by five other schools. In the late 19th century, many secondary schools dedicated to teaching this art form were founded throughout the empire, such as those in Luserna, Idrija, Gorizia and Wamberg, among others. In 1879, the K.K. Wiener Zentralspitzenkurs (the Vienna Royal Central School for Lace) was founded, focusing on teacher specialisation and the provision of motifs created by experienced designers. Bobbin lacemaking was also linked to the Wiener Werkstatte (Vienna Workshop) which collected works from artistic movements of the time (Viennese Secession, Arts and Crafts, French and English Art Nouveau, and Austrian and German Jugendstil).

A part of the workshop was dedicated to teaching arts and crafts, including bobbin lace, with many artists having designed circa 157 sketches. The famous and eclectic designer Dagobert Peche produced numerous designs for lace and jewellery: his lace motifs portrayed mythology and stylized plants. Of the workshop’s 38 sketches, a few were produced and printed in 22,000 copies, then distributed in the branches of the Central Programme. The branches, known as Filialkurse (Bohemia, Idrija, Proveis and Isola), received the designs on yellow cardboard and as a cyanotype copy, and also the cyanotypes of lace. Section 3: The Gorizia Lace School in the early 20th century In 1902, the Gorizia Chamber of Commerce made it possible to open the Institute for the Promotion of Industry, looking to the Viennese entity of the same name as its guide. The two institutes shared the purpose of promoting local handicrafts and, in 1904, an exhibition of home industry pieces was held, including lace. The professional training courses were held by teachers employed by the Central Office in Vienna. During World War I, the administrative offices of the Institute were moved to Vienna and, after that in 1921, the Institutes of Gorizia, Trieste, Venice, Rovereto and Bolzano were unified in the federation of ‘Institutes for the Protection and Development of Small-Scale Industries in the Triveneto’, allowing Gorizia lace to be sold to the ‘artistic workshops’ of Venice. After WWI, the Italian Ministry of Industry and Commerce relaunched the Royal Programme for lace where the Austrian Filialkurse were once active, placing them under the Gorizia Institute for the Promotion of Industry. 

The Royal Lace School in Idrija was overseen by the Gorizia Institute, which had the administrative task of coordinating teachers and the curriculum, and managing its commercial activities. Documentation from 1932 gives us information about the crafts workshop at 10 Corso Vittorio Emanuele (now Corso Italia) in Gorizia. This exhibition space was established to advertise and sell local products, lace in particular. Classes were organized according to the previous Viennese model and the old teachers were called back again.

They still used the old designs, though the Idrija campus had an active design department. For that reason, in 1923 the famous Max Fabiani was tasked with creating new motifs which broke with Viennese influence and more closely aligned with the local character of Idrija. In 1935, the design department was transferred to Gorizia. In 1945, the Institute was turned into a local delegation of the ENAPI (Italian Agency for Handicrafts and Small-Scale Industries) and in 1946 it was placed under the General Office of Crafts and Small-Scale Industries within the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. Also in 1946, the Lacemaking Class Administration was formed under the Ministry of Education, with the first class starting that same year. 

Design was handled by architects and artists from Gorizia, such as Guglielmo Riavis, Feredo Franzot and Silvano Baresi. Riavis reenvisioned and revolutionised the motifs seen on classic Idrija lace and he and his wife Gabriella introduced the use of colour in lacework. He also became a teacher of lace design at the school in the 1950s. The creation of the programme in Gorizia was followed (between 1948 and 1952) with the start of classes in Grado, Gradisca and Torviscosa, almost as if to reflect the structure which had remained on the other side of the border. 

Most likely inspired by the success of the Grado programme, Riavis and others came up with sketches and designs inspired by marine themes. Over the next 30 years, the school expanded and opened campuses throughout Friuli, becoming its period of greatest expansion, until it reached a total of 1,800 students and 27 teachers. Teaching lacemaking had become an integral subject in scholastic education. Section 4: Contemporary bobbins With the regional law enacted on 21 May 1979, the Regional Vocational Institute (IRFOP) became responsible for the management of lacemaking classes, continuing its activities up to 2013, when the Gorizia Lace School Foundation was formed, a public-private partnership that was responsible for classes until 2023. Since 2023, the Gorizia Lace School has been managed by ERPAC, the Regional Authority for Cultural Heritage, with the goal of guaranteeing the continuity of its activities, promoting the traditional art of bobbin lace, and raising awareness about and teaching the essential techniques that underpin it. 

ERPAC manages, markets and generally works to popularize ‘Gorizia Lace’ as a collective brand, along with the ‘three-pair Flanders lace’ graphic motif. Here the focus shifts to the present day, highlighting the new frontiers of the art of lacemaking and the creative experimentation fostered by the Gorizia Lace School. In this section, you’ll see images which demonstrate how this ancient art is still original, even in a contemporary world. The best of contemporary lacemaking is seen in the Showroom at 86 Corso Verdi in Gorizia, where the school’s teachers exhibit traditional pieces and original modern gems which they have designed and created. The Region recently selected the Gorizia Lace School as one of the six exemplary entities which it brought to the Italian Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka during the week dedicated to Friuli Venezia Giulia, from 27 April to 3 May 2025. With its delegation, ERPAC showcased the most important lace owned by the school and, in particular, the pieces which best dovetailed with refined Japanese taste.

The school’s teachers now work for the regional educational bodies on three-year programmes aimed at the awarding of a professional diploma. ERPAC also promotes free educational classes throughout the region. Through its teachers, ERPAC partners with local entities and institutions to execute cultural projects. THE TECHNIQUE AND DECORATIVE STYLE OF GORIZIA LACE Gorizia lace is a bobbin lace with non-continuous thread (also known as ‘sectional’), in which motifs and backgrounds are worked separately and then united via the ‘sewings’ created with the help of a very fine crochet hook. Technically it is characterised mainly by continuous tape motifs created in cloth stitch, simple or with borders, and in Point de Flandre.

Often continuous tape creates leaves and flower detailing enriched by decorative motifs derived from 17th-century Milanese bobbin lace, such as eyes, small holes and spiders. Sometimes the tape thins and transforms into the characteristic Gorizia method called three-pair Flanders lace, whose seemingly chaotic design fills spaces with capricious scrolls: continuous tape characterised by the modular repetition of a mainly abstract labyrinthine path is one of the most characteristic motifs in Gorizia lace.

It is executed in Point de Flandre because this technique creates tape with sharp edges, punctuated exclusively by sewings. While it’s true that the creation of tape lace was much more common in northern Italy starting in the 17th century, it cannot be denied that such refined lacemaking virtuosity is the product of a clever inventiveness that is entirely Gorizian. The educational inheritance of the Gorizia Lace School also includes the old Flemish style Spiders, the Vienna-inspired Flowers and Leaves and four types of Gorizia Lace, a stitch invented in 1946 by Emma Malner, the first director of the Lace School and previously the coordinator and supervisor of the Royal Programme starting in the 1920s.