The Torba monastery, the first property of the Fai in 1977 and a UNESCO heritage site, from today bears the name of Giulia Maria Crespi

Varese, 7 June 2025 – Among the events marking its fiftieth anniversary, Fai - Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano returns to its first asset, one of its most beloved, the Torba monastery in Gornate Olona, ​​to celebrate the anniversary of its birth, its founder Giulia Maria Crespi (1923-2020), who purchased it personally and donated it in 1977 to the newly established Foundation, with a generous, bold and visionary gesture.

Since then, the Torba monastery has been restored, opened to the public and enhanced, and today welcomes tens of thousands of visitors and boasts recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage site for the evidence of its Lombard history.

The unveiling of the plaque for Giulia Maria Crespi in the presence of the Archbishop of Milan Mario Delpini

The dedication to Giulia Maria Crespi was celebrated on Friday morning, June 6, with a mass in the small medieval church of Santa Maria , officiated for the special occasion by the Archbishop of Milan, Monsignor Mario Delpini, on an altar designed by the famous architect Mario Botta, which was thus inaugurated.

The altar gives back to the church, which had been deprived of one (even transformed into a stable in the twentieth century), an essential element of its appearance, its function and its spirit: a contemporary, essential and powerful sign, a symbol of sacredness , which in itself emanates from this ancient monastery on the edge of the woods: an intact and evocative corner of the Middle Ages.