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Biella

Provincial capital on the Cervo stream, heart of the Piedmontese wool district, home town of the Sella family and gateway to the sanctuary of Oropa.

Image from the publication of Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto
From the publication of Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto

Biella is a municipality in north-eastern Piedmont, capital of the province of the same name: it stands on a spur at the north-western edge of the Vercelli plain, on both banks of the Cervo stream, and its municipal area covers 46.6 km².[1] It is the centre of the Biella wool textile district, home of the Sella family and of Quintino Sella, and the gateway to the sanctuary of Oropa. From the Biella area came men who left their mark on the history of Turin, from the miner Pietro Micca to La Stampa's editor Alfredo Frassati.

From episcopal fief to the House of Savoy

The name first appears in 826, as Bugella, as a fief of the Bosonid counts; in the 10th century the place passed to the bishops of Vercelli. The community adopted its first statutes in 1245, rebelled in 1348 against bishop Giovanni Fieschi by accepting the protection of the Visconti, and in 1377 finally freed itself from episcopal lordship. In 1379 it accepted the tutelage of the House of Savoy, to which it returned permanently with the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis of 1559. In 1622 it was raised to the status of city and provincial capital; in 1647 it was devastated by the Spanish, and between 1704 and 1706, during the war that culminated in the siege of Turin, it suffered French occupation.[1]

It was from those very valleys that Pietro Micca came: born on 5 March 1677 at Sagliano d'Andorno, today Sagliano Micca, a bricklayer like his father, he joined the company of miners of the Savoyard army, where he was nicknamed "Passapertut".[2]

Piazzo and Piano

The city has a double form. Up above, at about 475 metres, lies the Piazzo, the medieval borough to the west; below, at 420 metres, lies the Piano, the older core but renewed by modern expansion.[3] The Piano holds the main monuments: the centrally planned baptistery, built between the 10th and 11th centuries; the cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore, begun in 1402, with three naves and frescoes; the church of San Sebastiano, founded in 1504, which preserves works by Gaudenzio Ferrari.[3] The cloister of San Sebastiano houses the Museo del Territorio Biellese, with historical-artistic and archaeological sections (among its pieces, the Bertignano dugout canoe and an Egyptian section); since 3 June 2024 it has been closed to the public for refurbishment.[4]

The city of wool

Biella's growth is the story of its industry. In 1571 it had 5,847 inhabitants, by 1921 nearly 25,000.[3] The leap came in the 19th century: Pietro Sella (1784–1822), the Enciclopedia Italiana writes, was the first in Italy to introduce spinning machines, in 1817, and founded a mill on the banks of the Strona.[3] The Sellas had been merchant-entrepreneurs engaged in spinning and cloth-making for seven generations; in 1835 Maurizio Sella moved the business from Mosso to Biella, creating the firm that would become the most important in the Kingdom's leading textile district.[5] The historic building of the Lanificio Maurizio Sella now houses the Fondazione Sella, with its documentary and photographic archives.[6]

In the 1930s, this was the picture of the city:

"As of 1 July 1928 there were in Biella 241 industrial firms with 11,254 workers and employees; of these, more than half (6,039) were engaged in the wool industry"

Enciclopedia Italiana, entry "Biella", 1930s

The description is quoted from the Treccani entry of the period.[3] Today Biella's economy still rests on the wool and cotton industry, on tanneries and on highly specialised engineering, organised in a textile district with a strong concentration of firms.[1]

Quintino Sella, an "industrial man"

The most famous native of the Biella area in national history is Quintino Sella, born on 7 July 1827 at Sella di Mosso. Three times finance minister of the Kingdom of Italy (1862, 1864–65, 1869–73), he devoted his work to repairing the finances of the newly unified State and described himself as an "industrial man", a rare trait among the ruling class of the time.[5] In August 1863 he climbed Monviso, and on 23 October the same year he founded the Italian Alpine Club. He died in Biella on 14 March 1884.[5]

Another son of the Biella area played a central role in the life of Turin: Alfredo Frassati, born in Pollone on 28 September 1868, was co-owner and, from 1900, editor of La Stampa, which he left in November 1925; under fascism he lived in retirement, dividing his time between Pollone and Turin.[7] His son was Pier Giorgio Frassati.

Oropa

In the Oropa valley, the stream that rises from Lake Mucrone and flows into the Cervo upstream of the city, stands the Marian sanctuary of Oropa. According to tradition, the wooden statue of the Madonna was brought there in the 4th century by Saint Eusebius, bishop of Vercelli, who is said to have carried it from Jerusalem.[8] In the 1930s the sanctuary, at 1,180 metres, was reached by an electric tramway that carried about 200,000 pilgrims a year.[3] For the third centenary coronation of the statue, celebrated on 27 August 1820 and prepared by rector Ignazio Marochetti, the administering Congregation had a wing left unfinished since 1795 temporarily fitted out with wooden partitions, to provide rooms for pilgrims.[9] The Sacro Monte of Oropa is part of the serial UNESCO site of the Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy,[10] inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2003.[11]

Contemporary art and recent news

Via Serralunga is home to Cittadellarte, the Pistoletto Foundation created by Michelangelo Pistoletto: it describes itself as "a great creative laboratory, a factory of ideas and projects", with an academy and residency programmes touching on art, fashion, food and architecture.[12]

The Biella area is also Piedmont's oldest province: according to Istat data released in March 2025, the average age is 50.3 years and fertility stands at 1.04 children per woman, among the lowest in the region.[13]

In November 2019 Biella made national news when the centre-right municipal majority rejected the opposition's proposal to grant honorary citizenship to senator for life Liliana Segre; mayor Claudio Corradino argued that the senator had "done nothing for Biella and the Biella area". The council then offered citizenship to Ezio Greggio, born in the Biella area, who turned it down:[14]

"My respect for senator Liliana Segre leads me to step back and decline this honour"

Ezio Greggio, November 2019

On 26 November 2019 the city council reversed its decision and unanimously approved, by 32 votes, honorary citizenship for Liliana Segre.[15]

Pages linking here

Related articles: Assedio di Torino del 1706, Ezio Greggio, Giovanni Agnelli (1866–1945), Giovanni Giolitti, La Stampa, Piemonte

Sources

  1. Treccani
  2. Treccani – Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
  3. Treccani – Enciclopedia Italiana
  4. Museo del Territorio Biellese (Città di Biella)
  5. Treccani – Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
  6. Fondazione Sella
  7. Treccani – Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
  8. Treccani
  9. Santuario di Oropa
  10. Sacri Monti del Piemonte e della Lombardia
  11. Regione Piemonte
  12. Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto
  13. ANSA — 31 March 2025
  14. Il Post — 19 November 2019
  15. Il Fatto Quotidiano — 26 November 2019

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