Isola San Giulio or San Giulio Island (Italian: Isola di San Giulio) is an island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 within Lake Orta

Lake Orta

Lake Orta is a lake in northern Italy west of Lake Maggiore.It has been so named since the 16th century, but was previously called the Lago di San Giulio, after Saint Julius , the patron saint of the region; Cusio is a merely poetical name...

 in Piedmont

Piedmont

Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...

, northwestern Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. The island is 275 metres long (north/south), and is 140 metres wide (east/west). The most famous building on the island is the marvellous Basilica

Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...

 of Saint Giulio close to which you can see the monumental old Seminary (1840s). Since 1976 it has been transformed into a Benedictine monastery. The little island, just west of the lakeshore village of Orta San Giulio, has very picturesque buildings, and takes its name from a local patron saint (Julius of Novara

Julius of Novara

Julius of Novara was a missionary priest to northern Italy.His cult is centered at Lake Orta in the Novarese highlands, and in particular on the island which has been named for him since at least the eighth century, Isola San Giulio, and where his presumed relics are preserved in the crypt,...

), who lived in the second half of the fourth century.

History

In the 5th century a small chapel (oratorium) was erected on the island, probably to commemorate the great evangelizer Saint Julius, who had died there.
We know from archaeological finds that a new, bigger church already existed in the 6th century: here Filacrio, the bishop of Novara

Novara

Novara is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With c. 105,000 inhabitants, it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It is an important crossroads for commercial traffic along the routes from Milan to Turin...

, asked to be buried. In the same time an octagonal building - probably a baptistery - was erected in the middle of the island. Unfortunately every trace of it has been cancelled in the 19th century when the massive building of the Seminary was built.
In the 12th century a new romanesque basilica was build, thus altering the previous one to some extent.

The great religious reformer William of Volpiano

William of Volpiano

Saint William of Volpiano was an Italian monastic reformer and architect....

 (Saint William of Dijon) was born on the island in 962

962

Year 962 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar.- Europe :* February 2 – Pope John XII crowns Otto I the Great Holy Roman Emperor....

, in the fortified castle located on the island, whose large walls were called "Queen Willa's walls" from the name of king Berengario II's wife.

External links

• History of San Giulio Island
• Island of Saint Giulio (Italian) - Translation
• Map of the Island
• Pictures - Flickr
  Flickr
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• Pictures - Webshots
  Webshots
  -History:Webshots was created in 1995 by Auralis, Inc. in San Diego, California. It was initially a sports oriented screen saver sold at retail for desktop computers. Founders Andrew Laakmann, Danna Laakmann, Nick Wilder, and Narendra Rocherolle migrated the desktop software to the Web and became...