Basilica di San Giulio

According to tradition, it was the hundredth, and last, church founded by Julius of Novara and his brother Julian, both natives of Aegina in Greece, who dedicated their later years to the evangelization of the area around Lake Orta.

Legend has it that around year 390 the saint reached the island sailing on his cloak, and then freed it from dragons (symbols of paganism); after the defeat of the monsters he built a small church devoted to the Twelve Apostles.

In the Early Middle Ages, the strategic position made the island an important defensive point; first, it was the abode of a Lombard duke, then Berengar II of Italy built a castle there.

Archaeological excavations inside the church have found traces of an ancient basilica (5th to 6th century), a small north oriented chapel with a single apse.

It is supposed that the during the wars that occurred in 962, the fortress (occupied by Queen Willa, Berengar's wife) was besieged by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor; this may have damaged the early Middle Ages church.

The entrance for the visitors of the basilica is on the south side, almost entirely hidden by the ancient Bishop palace (today the nuns' monastery); it can be reached from the jetty through a renaissance portal and a vaulted stair.

Many of other the architectonical elements are due to the renovation of the 17th to 18th century: the building of an inner nartex connecting the two matronei and the construction of the crypt (1697), with three little aisles preserving the remains of Saint Julius.

More ancient art pieces are represented by the Romanesque ambon and by the frescos on the lateral aisles' walls and on the church's pillars, dating back to 14th to 16th century.

In the chapel at the bottom of the left aisle, above the altar there is the beautiful wooden group representing the Calvary with the statues of the Virgin Mary, John the Apostle and the crucifix.