Pag lace is a unique product in world made by hard-working and skillful hands of the women from the town of Pag. Lace-making is a very old tradition throughout the Mediterranean. In the town of Pag, the making of lace was already recorded in the mid-15th century. In the Convent of St. Margaret, the nuns instructed girls, teaching them to read and write and to make lace. Archival sources from 1579 testify to this. History recalls the time when Pag’s women were summoned to Vienna to the imperial court before the Archduchess Maria Josepha, the emperor’s mother, to show her how Pag lace is made. Word of the beauty and perfection of this lace was carried far and wide, and its production intensified after the establishment of the Lacemaking School in Pag in 1906. which operated until 1945.
In order to maintain the tradition of making Pag lace, in 2008 the nuns began to organize instruction for interested women in Pag. Beside this Pag’s schools and the Frane Budak Society of Pag Lace-makers also try to preserve lacemaking.
Over time, lace became a stand-alone decorative item, an adornment on furniture, framed picture on walls, an embellishment on the hems of sheets, curtains, decoration on clerical vestments or other clothes. During time the lace found a way to modern fashion.
Today Pag’s lace-makers can be seen on the town’s streets as they create these unique handicrafts. The Pag Lace Gallery was opened in the very heart of the town, in the Rector’s Palace on Petar Krešimir IV Square. The Croatian Ministry of Culture proclaimed its collection a cultural good, which the nuns in the ancient convent have gathered and safeguarded for over 150 years.
