Orta San Giulio
Orta San Giulio | |
---|---|
Comune di Orta San Giulio | |
UTC+2 (CEST) | |
Postal code | 28016 |
Dialing code | 0322 |
Patron saint | St. Julius of Orta |
Saint day | January 31 |
Website | Official website |
Orta San Giulio is a town and comune (municipality) in the Province of Novara in the Italian region of Piedmont, located about 100 kilometres (62 mi) northeast of Turin and about 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of Novara. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy").[3]
The town itself is built on a promontory which juts out from the eastern bank of
to the west across the lake.It is well known for the nearby
In May 1882, Friedrich Nietzsche and Lou Andreas-Salomé, accompanied by her mother and a mutual friend, visited Orta for a few days on their way back from a Grand Tour of Italy. The couple visited the Sacro Monte for some hours and Nietzsche fell in love with the charming Russian. Salomé could not afterwards remember if she had kissed the philosopher and she was not in love with him, a fact which caused him much anguish.
Villa Crespi
In 1914 it was the location for the film Iwna, the Ganges' pearl (original title Iwna, la perla del Gange) by Giuseppe Pinto. (Info by the Dizionario del Turismo Cinematografico)
Sacro Monte
The Sacro Monte of Orta is located within a historical park, which now is a nature reserve, of 13 hectares. It includes:
- 21 votive chapels dating back to the end of the 16th and 17th centuries with frescoes and terracotta sculptures narrating the life of Saint Francis of Assisi;
- 370 real dimension polychrome statues of terracotta realized by the best artists of the Lombard school, who also worked on Milan's Duomo;
- over 900 frescoes creating real theatrical representations.
The devotional path ends with the Church of Saint Francis and Nicolao, a proto-Romanic building that was then remodelled in the 17th century so that it would resemble the Lower Basilica of Assisi.
Sacro Monte of Orta was inspired by the nearby Sacro Monte of Varallo, which dates back to the end of the 15th century.
References
- ^ "Superficie di Comuni Province e Regioni italiane al 9 ottobre 2011". Italian National Institute of Statistics. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
- Istat.
- ^ "Piemonte" (in Italian). Retrieved 31 July 2023.
External links
Media related to Orta San Giulio at Wikimedia Commons
- Official website
- Official website for Sacro Monte
- Official website Isola San Giulio
- 3 spherical panoramas of Orta San Giulio
- WEBCAM Orta San Giulio live
- News and Events on Orta Lake