Museum of Textile Industry in the village of Strojkovac

The Textile Museum in Strojkovac is the only museum of its kind in Serbia. It is located in a mill that was built in the second half of the 19th century. Judging by the size and living quarters in its composition, it was owned by rich Turks. In 1884, the enterprising people of Leskovac opened the first braid factory in it, which is considered the beginning of the textile industry in Serbia. The building is a type of "black grass dunder house". The watermill is located in the left wing, while the living rooms on the ground floor and first floor are in the right wing. Above the entrance section on the ground floor is a terrace with arcades. The first proposal to form a museum of the Textile Industry came from a member of the Board of Directors of the Textile School (1927), the famous industrialist GorcePetrovic, who gave 20,000 dinars to equip the museum in the Textile School and proposed that the museum be called "The first Serbian textile museum. Leskovac manufacturer GorčaPetrović ". It is planned to house a collection of original tools used by the villagers when spinning and weaving, as well as original fabrics. The fate of this museum remained unknown. On the occasion of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Leskovac textile industry (1959), the mill in Strojkovac was bought from the former owners and restored. The building has preserved the specific beauty of the architecture, characteristic of the time in which it was built, and the interior is equipped with authentic furniture and objects from the everyday life of millers. After many years of the procedure of taking over the Textile Museum and rearranging the complex and long preparations for making a permanent museum exhibition in it, on the centenary of the beginning of the textile industry in Leskovac, at the beginning of October 1984, it was officially opened. It exhibits original objects that present the process of braid production. The museum was reconstructed in 2011, when the building was restored to its old glory, and the former, authentic way of producing braids is back in function. The canal through which the water flowed was also restored, the power of which moved the mechanism for turning the charks and twisting the braids. The complex is located on flat terrain, and the facilities are surrounded by rich greenery - tall and low vegetation and grassy areas. A water canal passes through the yard and under the mill, which together with all other elements forms an evident ambient value of the entire complex. In 1980, the Textile Museum in Strojkovacwas declared a cultural asset - a cultural monument.