For about 250 years, from the mid-16th century to the late 1700s, a little town on the banks of the river Po was a music-making capital. It was the birthplace not only of Antonio Stradivari, the still unsurpassed master luthier, but also, arguably, of the modern violin itself and of a series of craftsmen who made some of the most beautiful-sounding stringed instruments known to man.
To this day Cremona, a town of unassuming proportions and northern Italian elegance, remains a hub of musical excellence, with around 200 violin-makers crafting new instruments for some of the world's most exacting customers. Last year, their work was inscribed on Unesco's list of intangible cultural heritage. And now, after years of waiting, Cremona has a showcase worthy of its illustrious heritage. Next Saturday, in a formerly disused fascist-era arts centre, a new museum featuring some of the most exquisite violins ever made will throw open its doors.
Such is the value of one instrument, a Stradivarius from 1715 known as Il Cremonese, that when it was transported across town to its new home it was accompanied by a police escort while traffic was blocked.
The Violin Museum, the total cost of which has not been made public but is thought to be around €10m-€12m (£8.4m-£10.1m), is largely the product of one person, Giovanni Arvedi, a local steel magnate and arts patron. Not content with owning Cremonese football club, he decided in 2009 to fund the construction of a place that would show off the town's musical glories, past and present.
Under the auspices of the Arvedi-Buschini Foundation, with the support of the local municipality and other sponsors, the abandoned Palazzo dell'Arte in the town centre was renovated and transformed into a complex of rooms housing priceless violins such as a 1566 model designed by Andrea Amati, credited as the inventor of the modern violin, and a 1727 Stradivarius known as Vesuvius.
The museum has amalgamated several collections in Cremona and will display historic gems alongside more recent examples of great craftsmanship. Visitors will be able to watch a real-life luthier at work in an on-site studio and, if they're lucky, catch a recital in a 460-seat auditorium whose fluid lines contrast with the stark rationalist design of the building, which was constructed in 1941 on the orders of Roberto Farinacci, a senior fascist politician who organised Cremona's brutal combat squads.