San Giulio Island

Who knows if in IVth century it was really a rock infested with snakes and dragons! According to the legend, it`s really on this little island that Julius – who escaped persecution from Egina in Greece with his brother Juilan – decided to build his own church. Since he didn’t succeed in finding a boat, he spread his mantle and he was carried there fighting against the storm with his cane. Even his sermon defeated the monsters of the island and so, in 390 A.D., he founded the Basilica as a Christian fulcrum of Cusio: there he wanted to be buried.
Actually the island, together with Orta, was a perfect defence point against barbarians and, as a matter of fact, it was the scene of many bloody events: first possession of Novara bishops, then Lombard duchy and scene of treasons (Duke Minulfo was killed by King Agilulfo in 590 A.D. and he is still buried on the island), then scene of battles and sieges in 957, when Berengario II took shelter on the island besieged for months by Ottone I. Finally, patrimony of the Bishop of Novara again, who gave it during the II half of XVIIIth century.

St. Julius Island, which can be reached through a boat service during summer time, but also with motorboats and private boats, has an elliptic shape of less than 300 meters long and about 150 meters wide; it is occupied entirely by St. Julius Basilica and a XIXth century seminary built on the ruins of a castle, and by a succession of buildings, first of all the Novara Bishop`s one, once occupied by the canons.
When you reach the island you’ll find a wide green lawn shaded by chestnuts. A flight of steps will lead you to the side entrance of the Basilica, one of the main romantic monuments in Novara’s area.
The Basilica is the result of many enlargements and rearrangements during the centuries: the tripartite façade adorned with hanging arches is put beside two XIIth century small towers. The pronaos had been added during the first half of XVIIth century. The XIIth century square bell tower is detached and set apart the church and it presents a triple lancet window at the level of the belfry.
The interior, with three aisles, keeps some paintings of different styles, a few covered subsequentely, but most of all it conserves the wonderful ambo made of Oira serpentine, that’s to say the rectangular pulpit adorned with six bas-relief plates the symbols of the four evangelists and two symbolic scenes with mythological animals, propped by some decorated columns: a masterpiece of Romanesque sculpture, dated back between 1110 and 1120.
In the crypt, a silver urn keeps St. Julius remains, to whom both the Basilica, the island an the suburb in Orta are consecrated.

The island conserves a religious aura that time has left behind, from St. Julius to Novara’s bishops, up to the XIXth century seminary and, today, the presence of Benedictine seclusion nuns who turned the Bishop Palace in a Convent. They came from Viboldone (Milano) in 1973 and they founded the Benedictine Abbey Mater Ecclesiae: the nuns are devoted to the production of hosts and the “bread of St. Julius”. They alone live permanently on the island.

Other buildings, once dwellings of the canons, are now private estates: in summer time the concert season of Villa Tallone offers impressive concerts in a charming, unique and exceptional setting.

An island full of history and religious traditions, enriched with cultural events especially during summer time. An island that - together with the village of Orta - is set as a precious stone in the middle of Cusio.