LAKE MAGGIORE

Arona is an important industrial, commercial and tourist center favored by the Sempione railway line and situated in an excellent position, fronting Angera and at the slopes of Mt. Vergante. Perhaps already notes in the Roman era, the first historical news dates back to the 11th century, when a captain of Ottone I had a Benedictine convent built. Of the battles between Torriani and Visconti, which they bitterly fought over this center, they can still be seen, the ruins of the Rocca that originally dominated a crag from on high; but most of all it was the Borromeos who established their feudal residence, maintaining their rule from the 5th to 18th century, representing a historical and cultural presence of major importance. The most ancient nucleus of the city extends up to the hills and opens onto the beautiful Piazza del Popolo where the third Sunday of each month a tiny quaint antique market is held and where the mannerist Church of the Madonna di Piazza - end of the 16th century work of Pellegrino Tibaldi, preceded by a suggestive tiny flight of steps of two ramps - a and a progression of buildings with arcades, among them the Hause of Podestˆ or the 16th cent. Palazzo di Giustizia (House of justice). Another sacred buildings of particular importance is the 15th cent. Collegiata (Collegiate Church) di Santa Maria Nascente, completed on the 17th cent. by Cardinal Federico Borromeo. Internationally renowned is then the monumental statue of San Carlo Borromeo, native of Arona, the then San Carlone: an enormus copper colossus (visit inside it possibile), more than 20 meters tall which, poised on high granite pedestal (11 metres), dominates the hill from on high; it was completed at the end of the 17 th cent. by Bernardo Falconi and Siro Zanelli upon the stock of a design by the celebrated painter Cerano and on the initiative of the Oblate Marco Aurelio Grattarolo with the support of his cousin Carlo, Federico Borromeo. In the square where the statue stands there is also the 17th cent. Seminary and the Church of San Carlo both by Francesco Richini. At Arona each year during the month of May there is an important trade fair.