The patron saint of Voghera is Saint Bovo, celebrated on the Friday before Ascension. His death in 986, while returning from a pilgrimage to Rome, attests to the town's old tradition of hospitality: numerous were the hospitals and shelters for travellers along the Lombard salt road, controlled by the Malaspina family, travelled by mule trains that went from Pavia to Genoa through the Staffora valley, the Giovà pass and Mount Antola.
Voghera also venerates Saint Roch with particular intensity: the church dedicated to him, built between 1525 and 1578 thanks to the Confraternity of the Holy Name of Jesus, still today holds an arm and two finger bones of the saint. The town also holds the imposing Castello Visconteo, a brick defensive structure built between 1335 and 1372 at the will of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, with a square plan and four massive corner towers, whose north facade, the best preserved over the centuries, overlooks the square of the same name.
