The centrepiece of Slutsk's claim to cultural fame, this museum is dedicated to the silk sashes that made the city's name across Central and Eastern Europe in the 18th century. The Slutsk belt was a double-sided woven sash of silk and gold or silver thread, worn by Polish and Lithuanian nobility over their traditional zhupan coats. Both sides were usable, each differently coloured, and the finest examples required months of work by skilled craftsmen.
The museum displays original belts alongside the tools and techniques of their production, and explains how the Radziwiłł family established the weaving workshop in Slutsk in the 1750s, attracting craftsmen from the Ottoman Empire who brought their knowledge of oriental textiles. The museum also covers the city's broader history, including exhibits on Slutsk's Jewish community — which made up a majority of the population before the Holocaust — and the Soviet reconstruction of the city after the devastation of World War II. It is a small museum, but well curated and genuinely interesting.