Gasparoli Srl: a Family Restoration Tradition

Visitors who first come to Milan couldn’t choose a better time to appreciate the countless beauties the city boasts, also due to some of its key sights’ renewed attires. Among these, the Duomo, the Church of S. Maria delle Grazie, the Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio, the House of Alessandro Manzoni, the Cà Granda, Milan’s Central Station, the Monuments to the Fallen in Piazza 5 Giornate, Palazzo Litta and Palazzo Turati, the Church of S. Maria alla Scala in S. Fedele, the Royal Villa in Monza and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. Few people know that all these monuments have recently been restored under the same name: Gasparoli Srl Restauri e Manutenzioni.

Not only a matter of design

Indeed, those thinking that a great architect is enough to turn some of the status symbol buildings of the city into majestic and undeniably fascinating venues are wrong. Behind the success of architectural work of art from the past, indeed, there’s a delicate maintenance work based on a meticulous care for details, on the love and respect for the tradition, on the desire of keeping ‘treasures’ unaltered without ever losing their lure and, obviously, on a great company…

The brand’s history

gasparoli_giovanni — *Giovanni Maria Gasparoli, the company founder*

Leader in the sector from 1854, Gasparoli was born from a long only-male family tradition, far away from being one of the classic Milanese. The company’s roots are plunged into the flourishing Venetian refurbishing art, region where Giovanni Maria Gasparoli’s brilliant mind was born, who first foresaw the importance of buildings’ maintenance to withstand the test of time without losing their appeal. His passion for his job and his curious nature are just some of the qualities the firm’s founding father could boast that pushed him to work far away from his homeland, up to even reach Buenos Aires. This is a love for tradition that was hand down as a precious gift to two of his eight sons: Noé and Carlo. While the first chose to stay true to his origins keeping a branch of the company in his native Cassano Magnano, though crafting top-quality works in various regions of Northern Italy, we owe the Gasparoli Restauri’s move to Lombard land, in the city of Gallarate, to Carlo’s resourceful personality.
Generation after generation, neither the political instabilities during a ‘boiling’ ongoing end of the century, nor the two World Wars scratched the two mill’s sections, different from each other for size and number of workers, but sharing the same passion for maintenance of beauties from the past, a truly Made in Gasparoli gift.

Restoration_Galleria_Vittorio_Emanuele — *Restoration work at the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II*

And which moment is better than the end of a tragic conflict to catch some fresh air to a yet acknowledged enterprise known for its high-quality works? The annals of Lombard restoration saw the birth of its jewel in the crown right in 1945 under the E.Gasparoli & C. name, born from the meld of the company in Cassano Magnago led by Ettore Gasparoli and the ‘cousin’ mill set in Gallarate. But news weren’t all yet, as the new-born activity could also boast a shop selling colours, paints and fine arts items, a true luxury for those times, able to make each work of refurbishment almost entirely self-sufficient. Statues cleaning, capital, column and marble surface covering and sealing, as well as the renewal of flooring, frescoed walls and gilding are just some of the performances the mill has been accomplishing for more than seventy years.

cagranda — *The renewed Cà Granda in Milan*

“The respect of a rigorous method using the most cutting-edge technologies targeted at recognising the historical and artistic value of each work, as well as the knowledge of their almost impossible repeatability and the aim of transmitting them in the future times so that they don’t loose their enclosed learnt potential”, as Guido, Marco, Michele and Gasparoli, body and mind to the company, proudly state are key to each project signed by the Gasparoli Srl Restauri e Manutenzioni brand, which changed its name in 1984. And how to prove them wrong, if you look at the results achieved? The newly finished refurbishment works to the spectacular Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II mark the success of more than 35,000 hours of meticulous cleaning, structural enforcement and works of re-colouring on frescoes which gave the most famous gallery back its exquisitely regal appeal. But it’s not all if you consider that you can count many other works of art from the past that saw the light again thanks to the mill set in Gallarate like, for example the Cà Granda, Milan’s Central Station, the Monuments to the Fallen in Piazza 5 Giornate, the sumptuous Palazzo Litta and Palazzo Turati, as well as the Church of S. Maria alla Scala in S. Fedele and the stunning Royal Villa in Monza. A priceless heritage given back to the dreamy eyes of Milanese and tourists by the Gasparoli family with all their care and dedication.