What is Varallo known for?

UNESCO Sacro Monte founded in 1491 by Bernardino Caimi, the prototype that all eight other Sacri Monti followed. Valsesian painter and sculptor who produced the life-size statues and frescoes that filled the chapels until around 1529. Administrative and cultural anchor of the Valsesia, at the confluence of the Sesia and Mastallone under the Monte Rosa massif.

Varallo is a comune in the province of Vercelli, Piedmont region of Italy, about 61 kilometers from Novara.

Piedmont · Vercelli

Varallo

The capital of Valsesia, the oldest Sacro Monte in Europe and a forty-five-chapel devotional complex on the rock above town.

61 km / 38 mi

Nearest hub (Novara)

6,912

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Varallo sitswhere the Mastallone joins the Sesia, the capital of Valsesia and the gateway to the high valleys under Monte Rosa. The town carries the oldest of the nine Sacri Monti, founded in 1491 by the Franciscan friar Bernardino Caimi as a substitute Holy Land for pilgrims who could no longer reach Jerusalem. Caimi laid out simple rural chapels on the rock above town to reproduce the geography of the Passion. A generation later, the Valsesia painter and sculptor Gaudenzio Ferrari took over the artistic direction. He produced life-size painted statues in wood and terracotta and fresco cycles that filled the chapels, working at Varallo until around 1529. The complex grew over four centuries into forty-five chapels, a minor basilica and more than eight hundred statues with four thousand frescoed figures. UNESCO inscribed the Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy as a single serial site in 2003. A funivia connects the centro storico to the summit complex above.

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Gallery

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Known for

Sacro Monte di Varallo
Oldest of the nine UNESCO Sacri Monti, founded in 1491 by Bernardino Caimi, with forty-five chapels and more than eight hundred life-size statues.
Basilica del Sacro Monte
Minor basilica at the heart of the upper complex, focal point of the chapel circuit and the pilgrim route to the painted Holy Land.
Pinacoteca di Varallo
Civic painting collection in Palazzo dei Musei, including works by Gaudenzio Ferrari and his Valsesian school of sacred painting.
Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie
Late fifteenth-century church at the base of the Sacro Monte ascent, with frescoes by Gaudenzio Ferrari including the great Vita di Cristo wall.
Funivia del Sacro Monte
Cable car connecting the centro storico to the summit complex above town, the main vertical link between the lower city and the chapels.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June brings green Valsesia slopes, the Sesia at full spring flow, and clear walking up to the chapels of the Sacro Monte. September and October are the strongest months, when the larch and beech around the basilica turn and the cooler air carries the painted statues better than summer haze. July and August touch the low thirties on the lower town; the climb to the summit through the wooded path is the right way to enter the chapels in heat. November through March is quiet. Snow holds on the upper Valsesia, the Pinacoteca shortens hours, and the funivia runs on a reduced winter schedule. The chapels close earlier in winter dark.