Casa Natale Spontini

Coming from Albacina, the Spontini family moved to Maiolati in the second half of the 18th century. In 1772, Giovanni Battista married Teresa Guadagnini, originally from Monsanvito, and seven children were born of their union, two of whom died after only a few days of life. On 14 November 1774, at 3 p.m., their second son Gaspare Spontini was born. Just outside the castle, the last house in the village beyond the western gate is the humble birthplace of Gaspare Spontini. On the ground floor was the stable, with no floor, while the upper floor, reached by a staircase, has only two rooms: the kitchen with a large fireplace and the bedroom. The small dwelling has remained intact even though it is devoid of its furnishings. The only surviving furnishings are a trunk and a cobbler's bench, a tool of the shoemaker's trade belonging to Giambattista, the Maestro's father. Next to the house, in the centre of the tree-lined garden, is a bronze bust of the composer, a copy of the one now at the Pergolesi Theatre in Jesi, commissioned in Paris from the famous Geneva sculptor and painter Jean-Jacques Pradier. The building was declared a national monument by Royal Decree of 6 April 1924. The adjacent house, instead, called Casa Sorana, was acquired by the Municipality of Maiolati Spontini in 2000.