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Cusio and Lake Orta Region has always attracted a lot of tourists since the Renaissance and then during the XVIIIth century, the century of the most important travels in Italy and of its reports. Romantic landscapes, uncontaminated nature, small agricultural suburbs... a lot of charming places where Milanese, Novara and Torinese lords have settled their houses in the country. Lake Orta is surrounded by many Villas and Palaces of the XVIIIth and XIXth century, high-class buildings for the nobles who used to come from the city in order to spend their holidays at the lakeside.
The nobles and rich XIXth century middle-class people felt in love with these places: some of them chose the village and they made it precious through their dwellings adorned with wrought iron balconies, bas-reliefs, luxurious flights of steps, porches and arcades; others preferred the amenity of the hilly landscapes, even choosing entire hills to shape them according to their fancies.
This happened to Villa Monte Oro, in Ameno: it was Count Gaudenzio Tornielli who felt in love with Monte Oro, so much that he began a gradual property acquisition in order to become the owner of the whole hill. His idea was to turn the agricultural plots of lands into an English garden; thus it happened, around the end of the XIXth century: 24 hectares of gardens to which the construction of a Villa in Art Nouveau style, today property of Alessi family.
The same happened to the so-called “Castello di Miasino” (Miasino Castle), which today houses meetings, conferences and banquets: the place and the style for the construction of a luxurious palace has been marquis Solaroli`s choice, a XIXth century advendurer who, coming back from the Indies, settled in Novara and chose Lake Orta as a destination for its travels in the country.
In 1934 Igino Ambrosini dreamt of more than a plain garden and a luxurious dwelling: in Gignese, he founded an Alpine Botanical Garden, the second one in Italy. Its position is really charming: a balcony on Mount Mottarone`s slopes facing Lake Maggiore: whoever wouldn’t have fallen in love with it?
On the contrary, the city-centre of Orta has many high-class buildings, some of which face directly the lake and are visible from the Island, while others flank the main streets, as for example the cobblestone ascent to Motta that slopes towards the Parish Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and goes up to the Sacred Mount.
Even the Omegna city-centre conserves many patrician dwellings, adorned with wrought iron decorated balconies, bas-reliefs, porches and portals such as the historical houses of Bazzetta de Vemania, along the lakeside, where Rosmini and Manzoni used to stay.
However, the lake has been a real heartbreaker during the XXth century, too: just remind Antonio Calderara who used to spend his holidays in Vacciago (one of Ameno`s hamlets) at his grandfather’s house; then, after the Milanese success of his art, he settled in Vacciago. He bought an old XVIIIth century house, a fine example of typical late-Renaissance rural architecture, where he collected not only his works of art but also the paintings and sculptures that he gathered during his life; today, the Calderara Collection is open to the public and it is shown exactly in his own house, the seat of the Foundation that was called after him.
Nevertheless, among the most important examples of late-Renaissance houses, Villa Nigra stands out by its beauty because of a mix of styles: the Renaissance and Baroque one. Porches and arcades face directly the courtyard, and the walls are adorned with pictorial decorations. Today the Villa is the seat of the Town Hall.
Sometimes the Palaces have also marked these village’s histories: just remind, for example, Gozzano Bishop`s Palace, which is the reconstruction of a former XVIIth century dwelling, or the Bishop`s Palace of St. Julius Island that houses a convent today. Among these examples, which highlight the social and political lives in Cusio, the “Palazzo della Comunità” (literally “Palace of the Community”) is the most important: it is also called “Palazzotto” or “Broletto”, and it stands out in Orta’s main square.
Finally, we can’t help referring to Strona Valley’s houses: in Germagno, you can come across the typical Cusio architecture at Cajascia, one of its main expressions, with its different levels of superimposed arcades. In Brolo di Nonio we mention the luxurious Villa Tarsis with its Italian garden. Artò and Pogno are full of patrician dwellings too, and so all Cusio villages as well as the hills that surround Lake Orta, down to Borgomanero and Villa Marazza.
Patrician dwellings in the middle of the suburbs, high-class buildings with their arcades and gardens, state palaces full of history, houses in the country built up in wonderful places, parks and gardens designed on whole hills of charming spots... it`s just a bit of Lake Orta fascination, a charm that have conquered a lot of people during the centuries as well as today.