Novara

Novara lies on the plain between the Ticino and the Sesia, at the crossroads of the Turin-Milan road and the route from Genoa to Switzerland. A free commune that controlled most of the Novarese by the thirteenth century, it accepted the protection of Milan and became a dominion of the Visconti and then the Sforza. The Broletto courtyard, with the commune's palaces of the twelfth century, remained the centre of its public life.

The Italian Wars brought two sieges, in 1495 and in 1500. In 1513 Swiss mercenaries defending Novara for the Sforza routed the French besiegers at the battle of Novara, ending the French invasion of Italy in the War of the League of Cambrai. From the late sixteenth century the great basilica of San Gaudenzio went up. In 1706 Savoyard troops occupied the city, the Peace of Utrecht gave it to the Habsburgs, and in 1735 it passed to the House of Savoy after Charles Emmanuel III occupied it the year before.