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Sliven is famous as a great craft center during the Revival period. Not surprisingly, traders came here from Poland, Hungary and all around the Ottoman Empire. The city was an important manufacturer of weapons, but mostly of woolen fabrics. That's why here in 1984 was created the Museum of the textile industry - the first permanent scientific and technical exhibition in Bulgaria.

The museum was created as a branch of the National Polytechnic Museum. The permanent exhibition is located on two floors in eight halls with a total area of 550 square meters. The museum possesses over 3000 exhibits. Visitors of the museum may also take part in the demonstrations. In chronological order the manual weaving, followed by machinery and textile production are shown - from the Neolithic era to the early 70s of the XX Century. Particularly interesting is the manual weaving, because among the distaffs and spindles can be seen the first sewing machines and the three looms invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1733 with the so-called "flying shuttle". You can see the process of unraveling the thread of silk from the cocoons of silkworms and various examples of traditional national crafts. Special attention is paid to the founder of the Bulgarian textile industry Dobry Zhelyazkov.

Machine production has also been presented with interesting exhibits like the first spinning machines imported from Germany and England. Particularly attractive is the pedal-powered loom, which was used mostly by men. The Bulgarian contribution in the textile machinery is also displayed: ribbon weaving machine produced in the Gabrovo factory "Yantra", the first machine for producing fancy yarns, patented in over 20 countries and many interesting exhibits.

Museum of the textile industry has room for temporary exhibitions. It has a specialized library with Bulgarian and foreign literature for the technique and technology of textile production and scientific periodicals. The library has a full range of the first Bulgarian books for various textile disciplines in secondary and higher education. The scientific archive documentary is rich of photographs of individuals, families, businesses and organizations associated with the development of the textile industry in Bulgaria.

Near the museum is the old cloth factory, founded in 1842-43 under the guidance of Dobry Zhelyazkov - founder of the Bulgarian textile industry.