Saint Giulio's Basilica - Orta San Giulio

History

• Tradition has it that this church was the hundredth church built by San Giulio (St Julius) around 350, right on the island of the Lago d’Orta (Lake d’Orta) and sharing the same name. Its origins, proved by early Christian archeological finds, are ancient. The church, however, over the centuries has been repeatedly restored and modified. After 962, the canons worked at the reconstruction of the building that had been damaged during the sieges. They kept the apse of the old church and they extended it with three naves, two minor apses, and a façade. The dome, however, dates back to the closing years of the XI century.
  

Architecture and Furniture

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  Behind the left apse is the bell tower, it has double and triple lancet windows in Romanesque-Lombard style and it was built using noble materials. The inside of the Basilica is decorated with lively frescoes depicting the Saints. It houses a perfectly preserved pulpit, made in Oira serpentine. The pulpit is considered one of the best examples of Romanesque sculpture, it has parapets adorned with a dense arrangement of sculptures that depict images from Christian symbolism, the symbols of the evangelists and what is probably a portrayal of the Benedictine abbot Guglielmo da Volpiano.

Regular guided visits