By car: from the A26 motorway exit at Borgomanero or Arona. Follow the signs to Orta, leave your car in the car park outside the village and walk to Piazza Motta, the central square on the lake, where you can get a public service boat or motor launch to the island.
By train: the nearest railway station is Orta-Miasino, 2 km from the centre.
Basilica of San Giulio
Orta San Giulio
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About
The Basilica of San Giulio on the enchanting island of the same name is one of the most atmospheric churches in Verbano Cusio Ossola, and is a landmark on Lake Orta.
The Basilica was built on the remains of an earlier 9th century construction. It was besieged in the 10th century by the German emperor Otto I and underwent severe damage. The surviving presbytery was incorporated into a Latin cross plan, and some Romanesque architectural features are still visible today, such as the façade, the apses, the matronea or women’s galleries, and the capitals, which blend well with the Baroque style of the interior, decorated with stucco and gilding.
The frescoes covering the walls were painted between the 14th and the 19th centuries, and are almost all images of saints. The sacristy houses polychrome wooden sculptures and a large fossilized vertebra hung from the centre of the vault, which according to legend belonged to one of the terrible dragons which inhabited the island before being driven out by San Giulio.
The most valuable work of art in the Basilica is the splendid medieval pulpit or ambon made of black Oira marble (the quarry, in the local area, is still used). The carvings on the pulpit, which dates from the early 12th century, have a symbolic meaning linked to the announcement of the Word of God and the struggle between Good and Evil.
Two flights of steps lead to the interesting crypt below the high altar, where a fine glass casket displays the remains of San Giulio. A small room off the crypt has recently been devoted to an exhibition of archaeological finds from the early Christian period and the early Middle Ages; items on display include parts of a tomb, some intarsias and a marble slab.
A later addition to the Basilica was the great bell tower (11th-12th centuries), which stands out from the cluster of houses on the islands as if to emphasise the spiritual atmosphere of the place.
More details
Town Council of Orta San Giulio
Freefone 800.905222
municipio@comune.ortasangiulio.no.it
www.comune.ortasangiulio.no.it
www.ortasangiulio.com
Town Council of Orta San Giulio