Cycle Route EuroVelo: Via Romea Francigena - leg Palestro - Rome

Mortara is a town and comune in the region of Lombardy, Italy. It lies between the Agogna and Terdoppio rivers, in the historical district known as Lomellina, a rice-growing agricultural center. It received the honorary title of city with a royal decree in 1706.

Main sights

• San Lorenzo. The Gothic basilica, characterized by brick facade, was built by Bartolino da Novara between 1375 and 1380 and renovated in 1840 and in 1916. The two tondoes outside the main entrance are both 15th-century works. In the pilaster strips the portrait of SS. Albin, Amìcus and Amelius are 19th-century copies from a 15th-century polyptych by Paolo da Brescia, a work at first in the Church of S. Albin and now conserved in the Savoy Picture-gallery of Turin. The Church has several artistìc masterpieces inside. Left aisle, first chapel - Here we can find a magnificent wooden Christmas crib with about 80 low relieved figures (beginnings of the fifteenth century) by Lorenzo da Mortara.

• S. Croce. It was founded in 1080, outside the walls of the village under the patronage of Pope Gregorius VII, and re-built inside the city walls by following the designs of Pellegrino Tibaldi in 1596. The heavy repairs during the Sixties modified the facade a lot and also the inside (which was aisleless and with side chapels) lose the originality of the design by Tibaldi.

• Sant'Albino, one of the Christian «mother-churches» of the 5th century Lomellina, re-used by Charlemagne as a burial ground for the numerous soldiers who fell in the battle between the Lombard and the Frank armies, on October 12, 773. Among the casualties there were also two paladins of Charlemagne's, Amelius of Alvernia and Amicus from Beyre, whose death inspired a lot of French chansons de geste. In 774 the famous abbott Alkwin Albin added a canonical college to the Church. During the Middle Ages Sant'Albino was a compulsory halting-piace for the pìlgrims going from Britain and France to Rome. The architectural style developed from an originai mingling of the Romanesque style, clearly recognizable in the apse, with the Renaissance style, to be found in the facade and in the nave. Against the southern side of the portico of the facade, is a building, perhaps a part of the ancient monastery. Beside the church, there are the ruins of the cloister, a brick open gallery with wooden architraves and with a 14th-century Gothic window decorated with rural motives.

The Ponte Coperto "covered bridge" (also known as the Ponte Vecchio "Old Bridge") is a brick and stone arch bridge over the Ticino River in Pavia.

The previous bridge, dating from 1354 (itself a replacement for a Roman construction), was heavily damaged by Allied action in 1945. A debate on whether to fix or replace the bridge ended when the bridge partially collapsed in 1947, requiring new construction, which began in 1949. The new bridge is based on the previous one, which had seven arches to the current bridge's five.

Pavia (Italian: [paˈviːa] ; Lombard Pavia; Latin: Ticinum; Medieval Latin Papia) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, 35 kilometres (22 miles) south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It is the capital of the province of Pavia. It has a population of c. 71,000.

Pavia is the capital of a fertile eponymous province known for agricultural products including wine, rice, cereals, and dairy products. Although there are a number of industries located in the suburbs, these tend not to disturb the peaceful atmosphere of the town. The town also is home to the ancient University of Pavia. The city was also the capital of the Kingdom of the Lombards from 568 to 774. The city possesses a vast amount of artistic and cultural treasures, including several important churches and museums, such as the well-known Certosa di Pavia.

See

Pavia's most famous landmark is the Certosa, or Carthusian monastery, founded in 1396 and located eight kilometres (5.0 miles) north of the city.

Among other notable structures are:

• ⊙ Cathedral of Pavia (Duomo di Pavia), begun in 1488; however, only by 1898 were the façade and the dome completed according to the original design. The central dome has an octagonal plan, stands 97 m high, and weighs some 20,000 tons. This dome is the third for size in Italy, after St. Peter's Basilica and Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. Next to the Duomo were the Civic Tower (existing at least from 1330 and enlarged in 1583 by Pellegrino Tibaldi): its fall on March 17, 1989.
• ⊙ San Michele Maggiore (St. Michael) is an outstanding example of Lombard-Romanesque church architecture in Lombardy. It is located on the site of a pre-existing Lombard church, which the lower part of the campanile belongs to. Destroyed in 1004, the church was rebuilt from around the end of the 11th century (including the crypt, the transept and the choir), and finished in 1155. It is characterized by an extensive use of sandstone and by a very long transept, provided with a façade and an apse of its own. In the church the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa was crowned in 1155.
• ⊙ The Basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro ("St. Peter in Golden Sky"), where Saint Augustine, Boethius and the Lombard king Liutprand are buried, was begun in the 6th century. The current construction was built in 1132. It is similar to San Michele Maggiore, but different in the asymmetric façade with a single portal, the use of brickwork instead of sandstone, and, in the interior, the absence of matronei, galleries reserved for women and the shortest transept. The noteworthy arch housing the relics of St. Augustine was built in 1362 by artists from Campione, and is decorated by some 150 statues and reliefs. The church is mentioned by Dante Alighieri in the X canto of his Divine Comedy.
• San Francesco d'Assisi, a late Romanesque church (1238–98) with a restored Gothic façade, located on Corso Cairoli.
• ⊙ San Teodoro (1117), dedicated to Theodore of Pavia, a medieval bishop of the Diocese of Pavia, is the third romanesque basilica in the city, though smaller than the former ones. It is situated on the slopes leading down to the Ticino river and served the fishermen. The apses and the three-level tiburium are samples of the effective simplicity of romanesque decoration. Inside are two outstanding bird's-eye-view frescoes of the city (1525) attributed to the painter Bernardino Lanzani. The latter, the definitive release, was stripped off disclosing the unfinished first one. Both are impressively detailed and reveal how little Pavia’s urban design has changed during the last 500 years.
• ⊙ The large fortified Castello Visconteo (built 1360-1365 by Galeazzo II Visconti). In spite of its being fortified, it actually was used as a private residence rather than a stronghold. The poet Francesco Petrarca spent some time there, when Gian Galeazzo Visconti called him to take charge of the magnificent library which owned about a thousand books and manuscripts, subsequently lost. The Castle is now home to the City Museums (Musei Civici) and the park is a popular attraction for children. An unconfirmed legend wants the Castle to be connected by a secret underground tunnel to the Certosa.
• ⊙ The church of Santa Maria del Carmine is one of the best known examples of Gothic brickwork architecture in northern Italy. It is the second largest church in the city after the cathedral and is built on the Latin cross plan, with a perimeter of 80 x 40 meters comprising a nave and two aisles. The characteristic façade has a large rose window and seven cusps.
• ⊙ The renaissance church of Santa Maria di Canepanova is attributed to Bramante.
• The medieval towers still shape the town skyline. The main clusters still rising are rallied in Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, Via Luigi Porta, and Piazza Collegio Borromeo.