Basilica Of San Gaudenzio

The

Basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

of San Gaudenzio is a church in

Novara Novara (, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It is ...

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It is the highest point in the city. It is dedicated to

Gaudentius of Novara Saint Gaudentius (fl. end of 4th century-early 5th century) was a bishop of Novara, considered the first of that city. Tradition states that he was born to a pagan family at Ivrea, and was then converted to Christianity by Eusebius of Vercelli. ...

, first Christian bishop of the city. It was built between 1577 and 1690 following the destruction of the old Basilica, ordered by

Emperor Charles V Charles V, french: Charles Quint, it, Carlo V, nl, Karel V, ca, Carles V, la, Carolus V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain ( Castile and Aragon) ...

. The Basilica itself was built by

Pellegrino Tibaldi Pellegrino Tibaldi (Valsolda, 1527–Milan, 1596), also known as Pellegrino di Tibaldo de Pellegrini, was an Italian mannerism, mannerist architect, sculpture, sculptor, and mural Painting, painter. Biography Tibaldi was born in Puria di Valsol ...

; however, the monumental

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

was designed by

Alessandro Antonelli Alessandro Antonelli (July 14, 1798 – October 18, 1888) was an Italian architect of the 19th century. His most famous works are the Mole Antonelliana in Turin (named for him) and both the Novara Cathedral and the Basilica of St. Gaudenzio in ...

(who also designed the

Mole Antonelliana The Mole Antonelliana () is a major landmark building in Turin, Italy, named after its architect, Alessandro Antonelli. A '' mole'' in Italian is a building of monumental proportions. Construction began in 1863, soon after Italian unificati ...

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

). The cupola was completed in 1887; it is 121 metres high. Roman Catholic churches completed in 1690 17th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Churches in the province of Novara Buildings and structures in Novara Basilica churches in Piedmont 1690 establishments in Italy Church buildings with domes {{Piedmont-geo-stub