Casa Crespi (Crespi House) in Milan was built at the end of the 1920s by Erminio Alberti (engineer) for Fausto Crespi, a businessman who lived here from 1931 with his wife and five children, Pietro, Giorgio, Ermellina, Gianpaolo and Alberto, born between 1918 and 1923. The family business produced metal furnishings for offices, hospitals and ships; and the house, built in the footprint of the old factory, tells their story, their daily activities and their private, cultured bourgeois life, one focussed on work and study, which preferred silence to the clamour of modernity.
Nothing has changed between these walls in 80 years: the furnishings, decorations, floor are all the same. The very small modifications are fruit of the great passions of Alberto Crespi, a famous jurist whose clients included Enrico Cuccia and Carlo De Benedetti, and was also a great musician: “I demolished a bathroom on the first floor to make space for an organ” he recounted. The imposing 1500 reed instrument was built by Mascioni organ makers and is still today redolent of his favourite music by JS Bach. Crespi’s other great passion was art: he donated an extraordinary collection of fondi oro (gold leaf background) to the Diocesan Museum of Milan. Casa Crespi conserves 15th century Lombard sculptures, 17th century Roman paintings and an abundance of priceless ancient books.
The villa was donated to FAI (Fondo Ambiente Italiano).
FAI - Fondo Ambiente Italiano
Via Carlo Foldi 2 - 20135 Milano
Phone: +39 02 46 76 15 393
Email: m.pizzorni@fondoambiente.it
