Villa Crespi
Villa Pia
Orta San Giulio (Novara), Italy
Since the 1980s, Villa Crespi has been transformed in a 4-star hotel owned by the 'Villa Crespi-Ca.pri srl'
1897
Angelo Colla
Cristoforo Benigno Crespi was a successful businessman active in the cotton industry. In 1879, he bought an estate near Lake d’Orta (Piedmont, Northern Italy), to build a vacation house in honour of his wife, Pia Travelli.
Crespi had fallen in love with the architecture of Baghdad, where he went to buy cotton, and asked architect Angelo Colla to build for him a villa in Moorish style. Architect Enrico Combi designed the magnificent park.
After it was inaugurated, the villa became a centre of high-society life: it hosted members of the Italian royal family and even the King of Spain. The Crespi organised theatre performances in the park and invited nobles, industrialists and bankers. At the end of the 1980s, Villa Crespi was transformed into a four-star hotel.
An astonishing three-storey villa in Moorish style, near Lake d’Orta in Piedmont, Northern Italy. It features a 48-meter high minaret and has richly decorated interiors made with lavish marbles imported from several countries. Construction lasted 12 years. The estate includes a greenhouse, a wet dock, stables, a big fountain, an annex, and is surrounded by walls with valuable wrought iron gates.
Ignazio Galella "Villa Crespi" in "Sharing History", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;AWE;it;1;en;N
Prepared by: Ignazio Galella
Copyedited by: Anne Dowell
MWNF Working Number: IT1 001
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