Casa Stradivari

On Corso Garibaldi, Casa Stradivari is associated with the home Antonio Stradivari entered after his 1667 marriage, a period in which Cremona's violin-making craft flourished.

Why it matters

Antonio Stradivari moved to the house in 1667 after marrying Francesca Ferraboschi; the official city tourism portal records that he produced many instruments there. The house is associated with Cremonese violin making, an intangible cultural heritage recognised by UNESCO.

What to notice

The house's historical association with Stradivari places it within Cremona's tradition of violin making. The craft involves the construction of bowed-string instruments and the selection of wood and other materials.

Context and history

Stradivari's move into the house in 1667 coincided with his marriage and with the decade in which his independent career took shape; documentary research on the luthier places his early married life in the Sant'Agata quarter of Cremona, where his first children — including Francesco and Omobono, who followed him into the trade — were born. After Stradivari's era the building entered ordinary urban life, and only in recent years was it recovered as a site dedicated to lutherie. In 2012 UNESCO inscribed the craftsmanship of Cremonese violin making on its Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.