One of the first Gothic churches in Italy
In the middle of the plain of rice fields, Vercelli is one of the oldest cities in Piedmont, an important centre already in Roman times and an early seat of a bishopric. Its most famous monument, near the railway station, is the Basilica of Sant'Andrea, built in just a few years, between 1219 and 1227, at the wish of Cardinal Guala Bicchieri, papal legate, who financed it with the income from the abbey of Saint Andrew of Chesterton, in England, received as a reward for his diplomatic service at the court of Henry III.
The basilica is considered one of the first Gothic churches in Italy: it combines the Romanesque tradition of northern Italy, visible in the façade of green and white stone with two slender bell towers and loggias, with the new Gothic forms coming from France, through the Cistercians, in the pointed vaults, the ribs and the slender pillars of the interior, light and vertical. Next to it stand the cloister, with elegant clustered columns, and the separate bell tower of 1407. Vercelli also has a treasure of world importance: in the Biblioteca Capitolare is preserved the Vercelli Book, a manuscript of the late tenth century, one of the four main collections of Old English poetry, which probably arrived with pilgrims on the Via Francigena. The city also has the Museo Borgogna, one of the most important art galleries in Piedmont, and the synagogue in Moorish style.
Tip: Vercelli is a stage of the Via Francigena; in spring, take a tour of the rice fields around the city, flooded like a mirror.
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