Domodossola (Piedmont): what to see


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What to see in Domodossola, itinerary including the main monuments and places of interest, including Piazza del Mercato, Palazzo Silva, Collegiata and Sacro Monte Calvario.


Tourist information

Located in Piedmont in the province of Verbano Cusio Ossola, Domodossola corresponds to the ancient Oscela Lepontiorum, capital of the Roman region Lepontina or Ossola, which after the construction of the primitive Plebian church in the valley, took the name of Domus Oxulae, mother church of Ossola.

During the Napoleonic period, between 1801 and 1805, the current road to the Simplon Pass was built, followed in 1905 by the construction of the tunnel, a work of fundamental passage for communications between Italy and central-western Europe.


The Civic Museum of Sempione documents the entire history of the construction of the Napoleonic road and the tunnel of the same name, also houses a section dedicated to the first unfortunate flyer of the Alps Geo Chávez who, after completing the feat, crashed to the ground from about twenty meters from the ground.

The town, of medieval origins, is characterized by the picturesque trapeze-shaped Piazza Mercato and surrounded by elegant buildings with very attractive architecture.

The historic via Briona begins from the market square, with the fourteenth-century tower known as the Bishop's tower.


The street is named after Opizzone da Briona, a representative of the Novara municipalities for the peace of Constance of 1183.

Near Piazza Mercato, there is the Palazzo Silva, one of the most significant examples of a Renaissance patrician house in Piedmont, which belonged to the Silva family from the end of the fourteenth century to the end of the eighteenth century.

In 1882, the palace was purchased by the Galletti Foundation to restore it and turn it into the seat of its museum collections.


Currently the Palace, belonging to the Municipality of Domodossola, is home to the Renaissance House Museum, with collections of art objects, furnishings, weapons, furnishings and a rich art gallery.

What see

The Collegiate Church of Saints Gervasio and Protasio is the city's cathedral, dedicated to the two Milanese twins martyred in the fourth century AD.

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The building was built between 1792 and 1797 on the basis of the previous fifteenth-century church, designed by the architect Matteo Zucchi, while the facade was completed by the architect Giovanni Creppi in 1953.

Some valuable elements of the structure are the baroque portico, the ancient serpentine portal, belonging to the ancient Romanesque church that originally stood near Piazza Tibaldi, the frescoes and decorations of the painter Lorenzo Peretti, as well as the chapel of San Carlo Borromeo with the important canvas of 1615 entitled "San Carlo Borromeo communicates the plague victims", work of the famous painter Tanzio Da Varallo,.

At the beginning of the carriage road that leads to Sacro Monte Calvario, stands the church of Saints Quirico and Giulitta, believed to be the oldest in Ossola, dating back to the eleventh century, in Romanesque style, with remarkable frescoes from the twelfth and fifteenth centuries.

On the Mattarella hill, south of the city, stands the Sacro Monte Calvario, a regional park and protected area since 1991, as well as a site declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The complex of Monte Calvario is formed by the Sanctuary of the Santissimo Crocifisso, the Oratory of the Madonna delle Grazie and the chapels of the Via Crucis, which follow one another on the cobbled road that once led to the Castle of Mattarella, of which only the ruins are visible today .

Sacro Monte Calvario houses the Mother House of the Institute of Charity, an important spirituality center open to religious and lay people, where, in 1828, Blessed Antonio Rosmini founded his religious congregation.

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