Villa Ottolini-Tosi, National heritage villa in Busto Arsizio, Italy

Villa Ottolini-Tosi is a castle-like villa built in 1902 to a design by Camillo Crespi Balbi, with two main floors above ground, a service basement, and a third floor only in the south-west quadrant. Its walls combine rough-hewn stone and exposed brick, and the north-east tower held the service staircase and a guard room at the top. Today it houses the Gioachino Rossini music school and public offices of Parco Alto Milanese.

Villa Ottolini-Tosi was built in 1902 for Ernesto Ottolini, one of three sons of Carlo Ottolini, owner of the cotton mill of the same name. The architect was Camillo Crespi Balbi, the family's trusted designer. The Busto Arsizio municipality acquired it in 1969 from its then owner, Dr. Gino Tosi.

The villa is now home to the Gioachino Rossini music school and to public offices of the Parco Alto Milanese, so its rooms serve civic and musical uses rather than exhibition space. The name recalls the Ottolini cotton-spinning family and Gino Tosi, who sold the building to the municipality in 1969.

Villa Ottolini-Tosi stands at the northern edge of the old town, near the church of San Michele and close to the other two Ottolini family residences. It now houses the public offices of Parco Alto Milanese and the Gioachino Rossini music school, so the rooms are in institutional use rather than set up as a museum.

The main gate is all that remains of a much larger fence shown at the Turin exhibition of 1902. Mazzucotelli's ironwork avoids constant-section bars: the pieces are made from coiled ropes, twists and whip-lash endings, shaped like wax and still bearing hammer marks.