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You are here: Art and Culture
The “Cusio” is a natural habitat that sweeps over Lake Orta and the neighbouring valleys, and its history is really lost in the mists of time. Some archaeological discoveries testify the presence of prehistoric settlements, and the Romans founded many “Castrum” along the so-called ”Via Settimia” which branches off from Via Francisca and leads to the Simplon, passing through Novara’s plane, the Cusio and the Pre-Alps.
During the Middle Ages the Cusio, being an important junction of trade routes, experienced a sort of autonomy, at least as far as a handful of villages that met with their independence for many centuries: St. Julius Riviera.
The territory, whose history is melted with Novara and its Bishops’ one, has been contested even between the Visconti, the Sforza and the Savoia, who left a mark of their presence.
An old history that left a lot of marks, both artistical and cultural: roman bridges, early Christian churches then enlarged during the charming and stately Novara Romanesque style, traditions and cults whose origins are lost in the mists of time.
Besides, the traditions of Cusio natural environment: on the one hand there is the Lake with its charm and its culture, on the other the valleys, first of all Valstrona, whose traditions are typically connected with an impassable and agricultural environment such as the mountainous one. Legends, sagas, mysteries connected with the presence of a lot of caves, a magical world of superstitions that you can breathe in mountain villages.
Even in recent years, Cusio has shown its own creativity and its dynamism whose origins are really ancient: the old craftsman professions, today recalled through exhibitions and museums (stone-cutters, umbrella makers, wood turners, etc.), give space to new ideas that have contributed in relaunching this area as an industrial town in the postwar period, as far as household item’s northern industries and taps and fittings southwestern ones are concerned.
Not only industry, but also art – even the modern one by Antonio Calderara who has set his Foundation and his collection just there – as well as cinema, that has been able to profit by the charming natural environment of Lake Orta.
Cusio has much to offer to the turists, as well as to those who pass there by chance or to whom is going to stay there for a while: plunged in wonderful natural landscapes, the lake and the mountains mix together in an enchanting way. Besides, works of art, such as Romanesque churches and luxury palaces, castles and modern exhibitions; traditions and folklore, to be enjoyed in many events celebrated near Lake Orta and in the suburbs, as for example the village festivals and the Patron Saint’s Day; usages and customs that the contemporary society risks of endangering and that are worth being called to mind. Finally, the professions of the past, that testify to the difficulties that our grandparents had to run into, as well as modern works that show evidence of the men`s ability to restore and invent.
Nature, art, history, sacred and profane traditions, professions, and so on... above all, a common denominator: Lake Orta and its precious jewel, St. Julius Island.