Cremona Reopens Casa Stradivari

Following a renovation by the Casa Stradivari Foundation, the home and workshop of famed luthier Antonio Stradivari will reopen on July 4, 2023

Located in Cremona, Italy, Casa Stradivari is the house and workshop where Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari lived and built his revered instruments from 1667, when he was around the age of 23. 

With renovations made possible by the Casa Stradivari Foundation, the house is now set to reopen on July 4, 2023, as a site of violin history and cultural heritage.

The Foundation was formed by violinist Fabrizio von Arx with Antonio Gambardella and Stefania Soldi in February 2022, after he saw the state of the three-storey house in 2020, while searching for the origins of his 1720 ‘Angel’ Stradivarius violin.

The 2023 opening date pays tribute to July 4, 1667, when Stradivari entered the building on Corso Garibaldi in Cremona, where he set up his first violin-making workshop, after his marriage to Francesca Ferraboschi. They lived in the house from 1667 to 1680. 

The refurbished building includes an exhibition space, library, music room, conference room, and space for viewing and listening to classical music. The third-floor terrace will also be accessible for visitors to see where Stradivari once dried his violins after applying his unique varnish.

The cultural hub will also host workshop activities and provide young artisans with training courses. Young luthiers will be able to attend an eighteen-month course in crafting stringed instruments, led by renowned masters Bruce Carlsson, Marcello Ive, Primo Pistoni, and Davide Sora. 

Further course mentors will include Carlo Andrea Rozzi and Alessandro Voltini for acoustic analysis of instruments at the various stages of manufacture, and chemist Curzio Merlo, who is dedicated to studying varnishes. 

Open to the public for cultural initiatives and tours, the house will also host public seminars. The second floor will be reserved for the residence of an internationally renowned artist. 

“Casa Stradivari exudes creative energy. That is why we wanted to create spaces where artists can confront each other for the development of new ideas, always having the instrument as a reference,” explained von Arx.

“It was precisely the encounter between Stradivari and the violinist-composers of the time, in my opinion, that was one of its many ‘secrets:’ the plurality of musical actors involved transformed Cremonese violin-making into a universally recognized work of art, a source of inspiration for masterpieces that still amaze today.”