Borgo Agnello
Itineraries From the Park all around
Minitour Paruzzaro (1/2) 
Today Borgo Agnello can be defined as a vanished village, already uninhabited in the mid 16th century, but still an autonomous municipality in the early 19th century. In the end, it was united to Gattico and later to Paruzzaro.
It had been founded in the early 13th century, it seems by Novara's citizens, and given the status of free borough. That meant fiscal and economic privileges, in exchange for military service against the Counts from Biandrate and Da Castello, due to strategic position at the crossing of the roads going from Arona to Borgomanero and from Borgoticino to Invorio.
The village took its name from (but was probably not founded by) Zucono de Agnello, who was Novara's burgomaster for four times from 1227 to 1237.
The southern area had already been inhabited by Gallo-Roman peoples, whose tombs it was possible to dig up (Cą Nova necropolis from the 1st - 3rd century AD and tombstone dedicated to Amonis Albuci, walled up inside the southern gate of the village, 1st century AD).
Borgo Agnello was not as lucky as other towns founded around Novara, like Borgomanero, Borgoticino and so on, because it was pillaged in 1258, during the fighting between Novara's Guelph and Ghibelline factions. It was also dismantled in 1358 on orders from Galeazzo II Visconti to avoid its being take by the Marques of Monferrato.
The village, with a square plan, was regularly divided into four quarters, protected by eight mounds surmounted by a fence and endowed with four brickwork tower gates. Trace of this defence system can be found today in two of the four towers (northern and southern) and in the presence of short stretches of the mound and of the external ditch.
A few decades ago, the building of a tennis court cancelled the ruins of St. John's Church.
The village gates were inserted in "open side" brickwork towers, that is to say lacking the inside wall, and protected by two external wings. The drawbridge was on the ground floor. On the first floor was a chamber with the fears to lift the drawbridge and, above, another floor for watchmen. The walls, whose external arch made up of large hewn stones look especially regular, were probably built in the 13th century.
Info
Other informations about itineraries From the Park all around are available on this web site, and nearby the described monument, in English.
Information provided by GASMA (Arona's Archeological, Historical, Mineralogical Group)
For guided tours please contact Associazione ProntoGuide
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Last updated: March 7th 2004