What to see in Novara, itinerary of the historic center including the main monuments and places of interest, including the Cathedral, the Basilica of San Gaudenzio and the Castello Sforzesco.
Tourist information
Located in Piedmont, Novara is a rather lively city from a commercial, agricultural and industrial point of view, it also constitutes a communication hub of primary importance placed between Sesia and Ticino.
Important settlement in Roman times with the name of Novaria, it joined the Lombard League and became a possession of the Visconti in the fourteenth century.
After some battles fought between various contenders he had to succumb to Spanish domination, which lasted for the period between 1535 and 1714, later in 1738 it was added to the territories that were under Savoy influence.
The Basilica of San Gaudenzio, located in the homonymous street and dating back to the period between the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century, has a single nave, built on a project by Tibaldi.
The spectacular dome, added in 1888 to a design by the architect Antonelli, has a height of 121 meters and is formed by a double row of columns, culminating in the statue of Christ.
On the side of the dome stands the rococo-style bell tower, built between 1735 and 1786 on a design by the Alfieri.
The interior, characterized by decorations from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, contains important paintings from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, works by Gaudenzio Ferrari, Lanino and Tanzio da Varallo.
Behind the basilica, in via Ferrari, is the Palazzo Faraggiana, a nineteenth-century building used partly as a museum.
The Church of San Marco, located in via Negroni, is a single-nave baroque building, designed by the biraghi at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
Inside there is an altarpiece by Crespi, located in the left transept and depicting the Martyrdom of San Marco, and frescoes by Moncalvo, positioned on the vault.
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In the same street is the Palazzo Bellini, dating back to the sixteenth century but reworked in the eighteenth century in Baroque style, inside which today houses the headquarters of a bank.
The Church of Ognissanti, located in via Silvio Pellico, was erected in the Romanesque style in the eleventh century and reworked in the 1700s.
In the apse basin, frescoes from the medieval period are visible.
In via Canobbio there is a Romanesque building, known as Casa della Porta, partially rebuilt in the fifteenth century with typical forms of the late Gothic period.
In Piazza Matteotti stands the Palazzo Natta dell'Isola, with its beautiful sixteenth-century forms, today the seat of the prefecture.
Inside the church of San Pietro al Rosario, a cult building dating back to 1599, you can admire various works of art, including a seventeenth-century Madonna of the Rosary, placed in the last chapel on the right and painted by Procaccini.
What see
The Cathedral of the Assumption, located in Piazza della Repubblica, was built in five years, between 1863 and 1868, above the Romanesque church of Santa Maria and designed by Antonelli, inspired by the neoclassical style.
In the four-sided portico in front of the facade there is the remarkable funeral monument of Melchiorre Langhi, built in 1539.
Inside the cathedral, in addition to the countless works of art present, it is possible to view some remains of the previous church, placed in the presbytery floor with black and white inlays, and in the chapel dedicated to San Siro, where there are frescoes of the thirteenth century.
To the side of the cathedral is the rectory, built in Romanesque style between the tenth and twelfth centuries but renovated in the fifteenth century.
In this building is housed the lapidary museum, containing Roman and pre-Roman epigraphs.
The baptistery with lantern and dome, placed in front of the cathedral and dating back to the fifth century, was remodeled several times.
It has an octagonal plan with alternating rectangular and circular niches, inside you can see the remains of the ancient baptismal font, including pre-Romanesque frescoes from the end of the tenth century, as well as other fifteenth and seventeenth-century frescoes.
Near the cathedral is the broletto, made up of civil buildings dating back to the medieval period that overlook a vast courtyard.
Among them stands the fifteenth-century Palazzo del Podestà, in late Gothic style.
The Castello Sforzesco, which is located in Piazza Martiri della Libertà and whose origins date back to around 1350, was fortified in the 1400s.
In the same square there is the grandiose Palazzo del Mercato, a 19th century work.
Not far from the city center is the fifteenth-century abbey church of San Nazzaro della Costa, built following the enlargement of an ancient oratory, which preserves frescoes from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
