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You are here: Orta San Giulio
Orta (from Latin Hortus conclusus) is today counted among The most beautiful suburbs in Italy. Some people have defined it God`s watercolour (Markus Werner). The suburb stands at the end of a promontory that stretches out into the lake, as if it wanted to reach its detached end, St. Julius Island, which is only a few hundred meters far (about 400).A little village with less than 1200 inhabitants, but a precious jewel to be protected. It will charm you easily: streets and quarters on a human scale, views over the Lake, shops, buildings and no traffic jams because cars are not allowed.
The core of the suburb is the square, consecrated to Mario Motta, one of the most active partisans of Cusio. But this is just recent history, while an ancient one tells of the square surrounded by colonnades that overlook the lake shores and the near St. Julius Island, often chosen as the setting of wedding pictures, theatre of cultural events and villager`s lives. On the North side of the square, detached and secluded, the Palazzo della Comunità: there the Council of the Community of the Riviera used to meet in the past, when the state/feud of Cusio was independent thanks to Novara bishops’ approval. The “Palazzotto”, also said “Broletto”, was built in 1582 and it presents late-Renaissance features even today, like many other Italian common buildings, even if in miniature. A wide arcade of two and three pillars supports the first floor, which is linked through a perron; it is composed of one large room with windows overlooking the square. In the room a baroque fresco is kept, the Virgin Mary and the Saints Francis and Julius, the two symbols of the community to whom the Sacred Mount and the facing Island are consecrated. Outside, the symbols of Novara Bishops who followed one another at the head of the government. The building was the seat of law court, as the inscription and the fresco of the Justice show upon the main entrance. Two sundials decorate the façade. At the back, a mysterious fresco represent a lady at the window. The heart of social and political life remains as a witness of a glorious and independent past, an aspect that today adds a graceful touch to this place. The Palazzotto and the square are obviously the people`s salon: from 1228, a market is kept every wednesday.
From Piazza Motta many charming and characteristic streets full of luxury buildings branch off: there you can find late-renaissance style and the neoclassic one with many important ornaments, portals, arcades, wrought iron balconies... The slope alla Motta (towards the Sacred Mount) leads to the parish church, consecrated to S. Maria Assunta, whose façade is the result of a XVIIIth century reconstruction, the XVIIth protiro, while the entrance made of Oira serpentine, the renowned greenish stone from the quarries of the homonymous village on the West shore, dates back to 1485. Inside, in a chapel, one of the main pictorial models of the early Lombard XVIIth century by Giulio Cesare Procaccini, showing San Carlo Borromeo in procession in Milan, during the hard years of the Black Death. Continuing on the right side of the church you can reach the Sacred Mount of Orta, promoted UNESCO World Patrimony, just 10 minutes far on foot.
On the contrary, Motta square is the starting point for other explorations of the suburb and of its wards, such as the one facing North, the Villa area, a succession of period buildings with wrought iron decorated balconies, or the other facing South and the Moccarolo area, a residential ward where you can find many charming villas with gardens overlooking the lake. High-class buildings take turns to more modest houses: simple dwellings with medieval foundations where fishermen and craftsmen used to live. Moreover, here is the starting point for a visit to the twin jewel of Orta, as precious as the suburb: the Island of St. Julius.
Orta San Giulio, a charming suburb where all the features of the whole Cusio area are contained: art, nature, traditions, culture and, last but not least, the views over Lake Orta, the mountains, the alleys, squares, buildings and slate roof houses, craftsman shops, old fisherman boats… A mix of romantic and picturesque that fascinates and seduces.