The History

A place of worship from pagan times, the Island is named after St. Giulio, a priest of Greek origin, who, along with his brother Giuliano, a deacon, brought the Gospel in these lands.

The primitive foundation of the basilica of the Island is accredited to the work of St. Giulio (hereafter San Giulio); and was later rebuilt or enlarged several times.
After the death of the saint, it is probable that priests began to inhabit the island, living in community and giving life to a Canonical College.
With the invasion of the Longobards (568), the island became the seat of a fortified ducal residence. Over the centuries and with the succession of the ruling peoples, the island soon found itself embroiled in the struggle between the Saxon empire and the Italic kingdom, which aimed at autonomy. It is in this context that in the beginning of May 962, Emperor Otto decided to attack the island in person where Willa, the wife of Berengar, king of Italy, had taken refuge along with her supporters and the treasure of the kingdom. Queen Willa and her family held siege for roughly two months, until they were forced to surrender. Otto then occupied the Island and seized the treasure, however, leaving Berengar’s wife free.

The Island of San Giulio

Interior of the Basilica of San Giulio

The Island of San Giulio as seen from Orta San Giulio

View of the Basilica

Along with Willa, at the head of the army was the valiant leader Robert, count of Volpiano. In those very days Perizia, his noble and pious wife, gave birth to a son who would become a sign of pacification between the contenders: after the surrender of Queen Willa, the emperor himself and his wife Adelaide hosted the baptism of the newborn in the Basilica of the island, giving him the name of William.

That baby would later become “Saint William of Volpiano” a great benedictine abbot and untiring builder and reformer of monasteries, an outstanding figure in Europe in the year 1000.

With an imperial document, Otto then donated to the Canons of the island two pieces of property of a large extension, located in the surrounding area, with fields, pastures and water, a real treasure at that time. The act, the so-called “Bull of Otto”, is dated July 29, 962 and signed in Orta. It is the first document in which the name of the ancient town of the Cusian riviera appears.

Marble slab decorated with a jeweled cross, peacocks, and palm trees, once located on the cenotaph of San Giulio, datable to the end of 6th century-beginning of the 7th century, now located in the basilica museum.

“The “Bull of Otto”, July 29 962 is the first document in which the name of the ancient town of Orta appears.

From the document of Otto – as well as from other sources – on can deduce that two realities coexisted on the island had marked its history from since ancient times up to the 19th century: church and fortress, canonical chapter and political institutions, spiritual and temporal power. The figure of the Bishop of Novara played an important primary role alongside the Canons.

The tie between these and the Island of San Giulio possibly dates from the end of the Roman Empire, when the Bishops were the only points of reference of the population, even and the political level.

In addition, during times of invasion, the islands of the lakes often became places of refuge for the population. It was probably the Bishop of Novara himself to erect the first fortress on the Island in which to seek refuge in times of danger.

The institution that politically characterized the Riviera of San Giulio was the “Dictio Sancti Iulii” (State of San Giulio), a sort of feudal system under the governance of the Novarese bishop whose history developed between 1219, the year in which the bishop of Novara Tornielli nominated the first governor of the Riviera, and 1817, the year in which the bishop of Novara, Card. Morozzo, ceded his temporal powers over the Island to King Vittorio Emanuele I of Savoia.

The positive outcome of the Dictio Sancti Iulii is certainly due to the support that the citizens gave their bishop, who, on his part, knew how to write “liberal” statutes that guaranteed a wide autonomy to this region.

From the history of these long centuries, one must certainly remember that following the reforms of the Council of Trent, (1545 – 1562), that instituted the obligatory formation of clerics in seminaries, the diocese of Novara chose precisely the Island for the first seat of the diocesan seminary.

In the first decades of the XVIIIth century, the Riviera felt the effects of the European situation, marked by the wars of succession that were fought in Spain, Austria, and Poland. In September of 1800, the Riviera became became part of the Agogna department of the Cisalpine Republic instituted by Napoleon. With the Restoration, the jurisdiction returned to the bishop of Novara, Cardinal Morozzo who, in 1817, renounced it, ceding the territory to King Vittorio Emanuele I. The bishop reserved the episcopal palaces of the Island and of Gozzano, as well as the castle of the Island for himself, and kept the title “Prince of San Giulio and Orta and Lord of Soriso.”

In 1842 the castle of the Island, which for a long time had been in a state of severe disrepair and now – given the changed historical circumstances – had become useless, was dismantled. In its place, Bishop Morozzo had a diocesan seminary built: the spiritual returned to prevail over the temporal. It was active with great multitudes of seminarians until 1947, when it was transferred elsewhere and the Island was gradually abandoned. In 1973, after the death of the elderly parish priest of the Island, the bishop of Novara Mons. Aldo Del Monte, wishing to preserve the spiritual physiognomy of the Island, asked the Abbey of Viboldone for available nuns to send for the founding of a Benedictine monastery. With the “yes” of Mother Anna Maria Cànopi osb and of six other nuns, the Benedictine Abbey Mater Ecclesiæ was born.