NOVARA, a city of Italy, the chief town of a province, stands between the Agogna and the Terdoppio on a hill 545 feet above sea-level in the plain between the Sessia and the Po. It is an important railway junction, 30 miles west of Milan, on the main line from Turin to Venice, which there connects with the continuation of the St Gotthard line and the Simplon route, as well as with a line to Alessandria and Genoa. Previous to 1830 Novara was still surrounded by its old Spanish ramparts, which were entered by only four gates, and gave the place a heavy appearance from the outside; it is now an open modern-looking town. Part of the old citadel is used as a prison. Of the churches it is enough to mention the cathedral, originally dating from 400, but (with the exception of the octagonal dome-roofed baptistery, separated from the west end by an atrium) rebuilt in the Romanesque style between 1860 and 1870 after designs by Antonelli; the church of S. Gaudenzio (so called after Bishop Gaudentius (oδ. 417), who is buried under the high altar), rebuilt by Pellegrino Pellegrini Tibaldi, with its strange tower, more than 269 feet high; and San Pietro del Rosario, in which the papal anathema was pronounced against the followers of Fra Dolcino. The city also contains handsome market-buildings erected in 1817-42, a large hospital originally dating from the 9th century, a court-house constructed in 1346, a municipal library of 30,000 volumes (located in the marketbuildings), a theatre, a statue of Cavour by Dini (1863), and another of Charles Albert. Besides being the largest grain market in the north-west of Italy, Novara trades in silk, linen, &c., and manufactures cotton, waxcloth, pottery, and starch. The communal population was 29,516 in 1871, and 33,077 in 1881; that of the ...city was 15,232 (or, with its suburbs, S. Martino, S. Andrea, S. Agabio, Bicocca, and Torrion, 26,206) in 1881.
Novara, the ancient Novaria, according to Pliny of Gaulish, according to Cato of Ligurian origin, was a municipal city of some importance during the Roman empire. Dismantled in 386 by Maximus for siding with his rival Valentinian, it was restored by Theodosius; but it was afterwards ravaged by Radagaisus (405) and Attila (452). A dukedom of Novara was constituted by the Lombards, a countship by Charlemagne. In 1110 the city was taken and burned by the emperor Henry V. Before the close of the 12th century it accepted the protection of Milan, and thus passed into the hands first of the Visconti and secondly of the Sforzas. In 1706 the city, which had long before been ceded by Maria Visconti to Amadeus VIII. of Savoy, was occupied by the Savoy troops. At the peace of Utrecht it passed to the house of Austria along with the duchy of Milan; but, having been occupied by Charles Emmanuel in 1734, it was granted to him in the following year. Under the French it was the chief town of the department of Agogna. Restored to Savoy in 1814, it was in 1821 the scene of the defeat of the Piedmontese by the Austrians, and in 1849 of the more disastrous battle which led to the abdication of Charles Albert and an Austrian occupancy of the city. Natives of Novara are C. Albucius Silus (ancient rhetorician) and Gaudenzio Ferrari (many of whose works are preserved in the city); and Peter Lombard was born at Lumello in the neighbourhood. The chapel-mastership has been held by some of the greatest Italian musicians, Paganini, Mercadante, La Coccia, &c.
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