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Villa Crespi is a 19th-century Moorish Revival-style rural mansion in the town of Orta San Giulio, near the shores of Lake Orta. The Villa is now a luxury hotel and restaurant managed by chef and restaurateur Antonino Cannavacciuolo, which has been awarded with three Michelin stars.
The Villa, notable for its scenic minaret-like tower and interior atrium decorated in stucco arabesque, owes its name to the wealthy cotton merchant Cristoforo Benigno Crespi, who commissioned its construction to architect Angelo Colla in 1879 as his family holiday home and wanted it to remind him of the buildings he had seen during his working trips to the Middle East. It was once also called Villa Pia after Crespi's wife.
The church of the former Franciscan monastery was built probably between 1515 and 1520. It is located in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Old Rauma. The church stands by the small stream of Raumanjoki (Rauma river).
The exact age of the Church of the Holy Cross is unknown, but it was built to serve as the monastery church of the Rauma Franciscan Friary. The monastery had been established in the early 15th century and a wooden church was built on this location around the year 1420.
The Church of the Holy Cross served the monastery until 1538, when it was abandoned for a hundred years as the Franciscan friary was disbanded in the Swedish Reformation. The church was re-established as a Lutheran church in 1640, when the nearby Church of the Holy Trinity was destroyed by fire.
The choir of the two-aisle grey granite church features medieval murals and frescoes. The white steeple of the church was built in 1816 and has served as a landmark for seafarers.