Lake Orta
A pre-Alpine lake lying entirely within Piedmont between Novara and Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, with the island of San Giulio, the UNESCO Sacro Monte of Orta and Omegna.
Lake Orta, also called Cusio, is a pre-Alpine lake lying entirely within Piedmont: it stretches 13 kilometres from north to south between the provinces of Novara and Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, is at most 2.5 kilometres wide, covers an area of 18.1 km² and reaches a depth of 143 metres.[1] The old name Cusio survives in the name of the province whose capital is Verbania.[2] Small next to the nearby Lake Maggiore, the lake packs into a small space a paleo-Christian basilica on an island, a Sacro Monte that is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and one of Piedmont's best-known industrial districts.
A lake that flows north
A hydrographic peculiarity of the Cusio is the direction of its outflow. Unlike almost all other sub-Alpine lakes, which drain southward, its outlet stream, the Nigoglia, flows north and after one kilometre joins the Strona, which reaches Lake Maggiore by two branches, one directly and the other via the Toce.[1] The promontory of Orta divides the lake into a northern and a southern basin; near its tip stands the island of San Giulio, just 0.03 km².[1]
The island of San Giulio and the siege of 962
On the island stands the basilica dedicated to Saint Julius: founded in the 4th century, it was rebuilt in the 9th and again in the 11th century — to which its bell tower dates — and was substantially altered in the Baroque period.[1][3]
In the 10th century the island, easily defensible, became caught up in the high politics of the Kingdom of Italy. In the 950s Berengar II, Margrave of Ivrea and King of Italy, seized it in reprisal from the Bishop of Novara and had it fortified, along with other strongholds of the kingdom. When Otto I came down into Italy, Queen Willa, Berengar's wife, shut herself in the island's castle; Otto, crowned emperor in Rome in February 962, had it besieged, and the island was taken in July of that year. Willa, set free, joined her husband, who had barricaded himself at San Leo; both were later captured and exiled to Bamberg, where Berengar died on 6 August 966.[4]
The Riviera of the bishops of Novara
The lake's shores made up the county of Riviera d'Orta, a temporal domain of the Church of Novara. Bishop Carlo Bascapè tenaciously defended that temporal lordship along with the rights of ecclesiastical jurisdiction.[5] The old appearance of Orta, with its arcaded square, its 17th-century houses and the praetorian palace built in 1582, survives from that period.[3]
The Sacro Monte of Orta
On the hill behind the village, the community envisioned a devotional path as early as 1583; the project took shape in 1590 thanks to the Novara-born abbot Amico Canobio and the design of the Capuchin architect Cleto da Castelletto Ticino. Between 1593 and 1615 the true director of the works was Bishop Bascapè himself.[6] The result was twenty chapels set along a path at the top of the hill, telling the life of Saint Francis of Assisi through statues and frescoes; among those who worked on them were the Fiammenghini, Morazzone, Cristoforo Prestinari, the d'Enrico brothers, Dionigi Bussola and the Nuvolone brothers.[6][3] The path ends at the church of San Nicolao, of proto-Romanesque origin and remodelled in the 17th century, which houses a 14th-century wooden group of the Madonna della Pietà.[6] The Sacro Monte of Orta is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy.[6]
Omegna, industry and Rodari
At the lake's northern end, Omegna is, together with Orta San Giulio, one of the Cusio's two main centres:[1] a road junction for the villages along the shore, a notable industrial centre and a tourist destination.[7] Here, then in the province of Novara, Gianni Rodari was born on 23 October 1920; he returned in imagination to the places of his childhood in his 1978 novel C'era due volte il barone Lamberto, a book that, as the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani notes, is "set by the writer in the places of his own childhood" and "ultimately tells of an escape from death".[8]
The lake is also prone to flooding: in November 2014, during the rains that caused Lake Maggiore to overflow at Verbania, Lake Orta also broke its banks at Omegna.[9]
The waters today
The health of the Cusio's waters is closely monitored. In Legambiente's 2019 Goletta dei Laghi survey, Lake Orta recorded the highest average surface microplastic count of the thirteen lakes examined — over 838,000 particles per square kilometre — while at the same time showing the lowest values in samples taken at depth, down to 50 metres: 0.32 particles per cubic metre.[10] Subsequent analyses by Arpa Piemonte on samples from 2022 and 2023 showed values in line with other Italian lakes. Jacopo Fogola of Arpa Piemonte summed them up by explaining that "the predominant type is polyethylene, and in terms of abundance we are talking about 1 to 1.5 microplastics per m³".[11]
In 2022 the Province of Novara launched an ecological restoration project co-funded by the Compagnia di San Paolo of Turin under the "SIMBIOSI" call, with CNR-IRSA of Verbania as technical partner: monitoring of microplastics and invasive alien species, submerged shelters for fish, and the reintroduction of native species such as the pigo, the agone, the Italian pike and the marbled trout. The institute presents it as the intervention for "a lake that is returning to its former splendour".[12]
Related articles: Gianni Rodari, Lake Maggiore, Verbania
Pages linking here
Sources
- Treccani – Enciclopedia on line
- Treccani – Enciclopedia on line
- Treccani – Enciclopedia Italiana
- Treccani – Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
- Treccani – Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
- Sacri Monti del Piemonte e della Lombardia (sito UNESCO)
- Treccani – Enciclopedia on line
- Treccani – Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
- Il Post — 13 November 2014
- Il Fatto Quotidiano — 12 August 2020
- Il Fatto Quotidiano — 13 August 2025
- CNR-IRSA — 11 October 2022