Ivrea

Ivrea straddles the Dora Baltea on the road from the Piedmontese plain into the Aosta Valley. The Romans founded the colony of Eporedia in 100 BC, and the town later became the centre of a Lombard duchy and a medieval march. Its castle and cathedral stand above a crossing on the route toward the Alpine passes.

Around the year 1001 Arduin took the march and later became King of Italy. Ivrea was disputed by its bishops, the marquises of Montferrat and the House of Savoy. In 1356 Amadeus VI of Savoy acquired the town, which remained in Savoyard hands for centuries apart from a brief French conquest. Napoleon entered Ivrea in May 1800, beginning a period of French control that lasted until his fall in 1814.