Biella: Piazzo, Churches, Museums and Historic Trails
Accommodation in Biella
Piazzo: District History and Medieval Architecture
Biella’s cultural attractions range from an elevated district to religious buildings, museums, former factory spaces, a rose garden and historic trails.
Piazzo is the elevated district of Biella and dates back to 1160. The Chiesa di San Giacomo is the oldest surviving medieval building in Piazzo. The Duomo contains preserved fragments of 15th-century frescoes.
The Portici del Piazzo surround Piazza Cisterna with characteristic medieval arcades. They consist of modules, each with two bays, stone capitals and decorations made of terracotta bands. The Battistero has an intricate floor plan with four semicircular apses attached to the sides of a central square. The Campanile di Santo Stefano has a square floor plan, nine superimposed levels and is 52.60 metres high.
Religious Buildings in the City
The interior of the Chiesa e Chiostro di San Sebastiano has a Latin-cross floor plan and a barrel vault decorated with coffering. A 16th-century fresco in a chapel of San Sebastiano’s left aisle depicts the Crucifixion with a representation of the city of Biella in the background.
Museum, Industrial History and Family History
The Museo del Territorio is located in the cloister of the Basilica di San Sebastiano. The archaeological section of the Museo del Territorio ranges from palaeontology to the Middle Ages. The historical-artistic section of the Museo del Territorio ranges from the Renaissance to 20th-century collecting.
Cittadellarte is located in the premises of the former Lanificio Trombetta textile factory, an exemplary testimony to industrial archaeology in Biella’s historic textile centre. Works by the artist Michelangelo Pistoletto are exhibited at Cittadellarte.
Palazzo La Marmora in the historic Borgo district of Piazzo is a house museum shaped by 17 generations of the Ferrero della Marmora family. Palazzo La Marmora has been owned by the Ferrero family since the 14th century.
Rose Garden and Trails Along the Water
Palazzo Gromo Losa has an Italian rose garden with various rose varieties, a long pergola, boxwood hedges and water basins.
The short circular trail “Biella e l'acqua” runs east of the historic centre along the Torrente Cervo and passes through an area of industrial archaeology. The Sentiero Gorgomoro Biella-Oropa includes a historic mill with a forge as well as a teledynamic system for generating and transmitting hydraulic energy.
The Sentiero Gorgomoro begins in the Riva district. On trail D1, the Sentiero Gorgomoro initially follows the Torrente Oropa; the D1 trail then leads into a forest.
Location of Cittadellarte
Cittadellarte is located approximately 2 kilometres from Biella San Paolo railway station. The station is regularly served by direct trains from Santhià and Novara.
To the overarching travel overview: Province of Biella.
