Where to Stay in Novara, Piemonte

What is Novara known for?

The Basilica of San Gaudenzio and Novara Cathedral stand at the head of a list that runs on through Saint Euphemia Church, the Chiesa del Carmine and the Abbey of San Nazzaro della Costa. Politics leaves its own marks. The Monument to Camillo Benso conte di Cavour and the monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II put two national figures on the street, and ExpoRisorgimento keeps the Risorgimento itself indoors.

What are the main landmarks in Novara?

San Gaudenzio takes the eye first. The Basilica of San Gaudenzio and the chiesa di San Gaudenzio carry the same dedication, while Novara Cathedral and Saint Euphemia Church add the other names at the head of the church list. Walls and towers follow.

Visconti-Sforza Castle and Torre Natta stand for the defended city, and the Galleria d'Arte Moderna Paolo e Adele Giannoni accounts for the collections. Monuments do the rest, from the Monument to Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia to the monumento ai martiri di Vignale.

What is the history of Novara?

The record starts with stone. The Museo lapidario della Canonica di Santa Maria holds carved stone from the cathedral's canonry, and Novara Cathedral and the Abbey of San Nazzaro della Costa carry the older religious line. Then came the castle.

Visconti-Sforza Castle carries two dynastic names in one, and Torre Natta belongs to the same defended city those families left behind. Piemonte counts the place second only to Turin, and the province of Novara takes its name from the city. Unification left the heaviest deposit.

Novara holds the Monument to Camillo Benso conte di Cavour, the monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II and the Monument to Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia, and ExpoRisorgimento gathers the same period into a single display. Vignale is remembered separately. The monumento ai martiri di Vignale and the Monumento ai caduti mark losses rather than achievements, and the Museo storico novarese "Aldo Rossini" holds the documentary side of both.

Water has its own archive here. The Historical Archive of Waters and Irrigated Lands sets out the management of the irrigated country around the city, which is an unusual subject for a municipal institution to own.

Where is Novara?

Novara covers 103 square kilometres. The city lies west of Milan, and the province it heads spreads out around it across country that the Historical Archive of Waters and Irrigated Lands takes as its subject. Everything old is packed into a small centre.

Novara Cathedral, the Basilica of San Gaudenzio and Visconti-Sforza Castle stand close enough together that the historic core reads as one piece, with the Omarini Garden as the green interruption.

What is the climate of Novara?

Water shapes the growing year here. The irrigated country recorded by the Historical Archive of Waters and Irrigated Lands works with the seasons Novara gets, which run warm through the middle of the year and cool at the far end of it. The Omarini Garden shows the turn.

Shade matters in the warm months, and the walk between Novara Cathedral and the Basilica of San Gaudenzio is short enough to keep the heat a minor consideration.

How do you get to Novara?

Milan is the nearest big reference. Novara lies west of it, and anyone arriving from that direction is heading into the capital of its own province rather than a suburb of anywhere. The centre does the rest on foot.

Novara Cathedral, the Basilica of San Gaudenzio, Visconti-Sforza Castle and Saint Euphemia Church all stand within the historic core, so a stay there needs no transport between them. Palaverdi Novara and the palasport Dal Lago are the exceptions.