Novara

Novara sits on the plain between the Agogna and Terdoppio streams, roughly halfway between Turin and Milan, wearing its history lightly: Roman street grids, medieval palaces, a neoclassical cathedral and a skyline defined by one extraordinary dome. It is a working provincial capital with rice country all around and far fewer visitors than its monuments deserve.

Why visit

The city’s most persuasive argument is vertical. The dome of the Basilica of San Gaudenzio, entirely in brick masonry and rising 121 metres, crowns a statue of Christ the Saviour and dominates the plain for kilometres — an audacious feat of nineteenth-century engineering by Alessandro Antonelli, the same architect behind Turin’s Mole Antonelliana. Around it, Novara unfolds as an unhurried historic centre: an early Christian baptistery, a neoclassical cathedral, a medieval communal palace complex, and a castle now serving as exhibition space and tourist office. Add the surrounding rice paddies of the Padan plain and an opera house with a serious season, and Novara makes an easy, rewarding stop on the Turin–Milan corridor.

Character and history

Founded by the Romans around 89 BC — its name joins “Nov” and Aria, the Cisalpine Gaulish name for the region — the town was destroyed and rebuilt in late antiquity and still follows its Roman street grid in the axes of Corso Cavour and Corso Italia. Medieval Novara fell under Milanese dominion, passing to the Visconti and then the Sforza, whose castle remains the city’s principal fortress. In 1706 it came to the House of Savoy, apart from the Napoleonic interval. The battle of Novara in 1849, when Radetzky’s Austrians crushed the Sardinian army and forced Charles Albert’s abdication, marked the city’s place in Risorgimento memory; a defeat, ironically, that many historians see as accelerating the drive toward Italian unification. Rice cultivation on the surrounding plain has shaped both the economy and the table, and the city hosts a dedicated rice exchange.

What to see

Start with the Basilica of San Gaudenzio, built from 1577 as a statement of civic identity and completed a century later; inside, a Gaudenzio Ferrari polyptych, frescoes by Tanzio da Varallo, and a silver urn holding the relics of Novara’s patron saint reward the visit. The Climb of the Dome is offered as a guided experience for close views of Antonelli’s structure and the panorama above. On Piazza della Repubblica, the Novara Cathedral is another Antonelli work in neoclassical dress, standing beside the fifth-century Early Christian Baptistery, the oldest building in the city, and the Cathedral Canonical Residence museums. The medieval Broletto Monumental Complex gathers four palaces around a quiet courtyard, with the civic Gallery of Modern Art Paolo and Adele Giannoni inside its walls. Across the centre, the Visconti-Sforza Castle shelters the Archaeological Museum in its undercrofts.

How to experience

Novara is a compact city on foot: the dome acts as a compass, and the walk from the castle through the Broletto to the cathedral takes in most of the essential monuments. Devote an hour or more to the basilica and book ahead if you want the dome climb, which runs with guides and limited places. In the evening, the Teatro Carlo Coccia carries a full season of opera, dance and prose, and hosts the Guido Cantelli conducting competition honouring the Novarese-born conductor. Eat as the province eats: the rice plain yields risotto in countless forms, and restaurants in the centre serve the local versions alongside other Piemontese dishes. For a slower day, the natural-history collection of the Faraggiana Ferrandi Natural History Museum and the war-history collections at the Novarese Historical Museum suit rainy afternoons.

Practical planning

Novara is an easy railway hub on the Turin–Milan lines, with frequent regional and fast trains from both cities, so it works well as a day trip or as an overnight stop. The historic centre is flat and walkable; most monuments cluster within fifteen minutes of the castle square. Church, museum and theatre hours vary through the year and several sites close on weekdays or Mondays, so check turismonovara.it, the municipal site (comune.novara.it) and the individual foundations before setting out. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons; summer can be hot on the plain. If you have a car, Lake Orta and its lakeside towns lie half an hour to the north and combine naturally with a city visit.

Nearby places

• Orta San Giulio — a lakeside village of arcaded squares facing the island of San Giulio.
• Lake Orta — the quiet westernmost of the Italian lakes, an easy excursion north of the city.