Things to See in Orta San Giulio | 2 Monuments & Landmarks

All the monuments in Orta San Giulio

The landmarks and masterpieces worth planning a day around.

Isola San Giulio and its basilica filling the center of Lake Orta

Isola di San GiulioIsola San GiulioIsland basilica of San Giulio, Way of Silence path, closed Benedictine convent, Lake Orta stillnessLegend holds that Julius, a fourth century evangelist, crossed to this islet in the middle of Lake Orta on his cloak to clear it of serpents and dragons before founding a chapel, and a Romanesque basilica replaced earlier churches on the same spot by the twelfth century. A seminary building from the 1840s, raised over the ruins of a medieval castle, has housed a closed Benedictine community of nuns since 1976, so the convent itself stays off limits to visitors. The single lane that circles the island, barely wide enough for two people to pass, is signposted as the Way of Silence, its stone markers carrying short meditations on quiet rather than street names. A handful of families still live here year round among the mostly seasonal houses, and the whole loop takes only about twenty minutes on foot.Plan the visit

ChurchUNESCOSacro Monte di OrtaTwenty chapels of Saint Francis, terracotta tableaux, UNESCO listing, views over Lake Orta and Isola San GiulioTwenty chapels climb the wooded hill above Orta, built between 1591 and the 1780s so pilgrims could walk the life of Saint Francis of Assisi without leaving Piedmont. Inside each one, life-size terracotta figures act out a scene: the saint preaching to birds, renouncing his father's wealth, receiving the stigmata on La Verna, all set against frescoed skies painted by local artists over two centuries. The path between chapels keeps opening onto Lake Orta and the wooded island of San Giulio below, one reason UNESCO listed this Sacro Monte, one of nine such sanctuaries across Piedmont and Lombardy, as a World Heritage Site in 2003. The final chapel and the church of San Nicolao crown the hill; the walk back down into Orta's lakefront takes about twenty unhurried minutes.

The Orta San Giulio guide

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Monuments a day trip away, elsewhere in Piedmont.

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