The patron saint of Verbania is Saint Victor, celebrated on 8 May: the basilica dedicated to him, in the town's historic centre, stands on the very site where a very ancient 5th-century Christian church once stood. It took on the role of the town's main church when Saint Victor was proclaimed patron in 1992, and the celebration ends every year with a procession and the striking ceremony of the blessing of the Lake.
The name Verbania itself is a calque of the Latin name of Lake Maggiore, Verbanus Lacus, on whose western shore the town stands on a triangular promontory, at the northern end of the Borromeo gulf where the Toce river flows in. Verbania is today the most populous centre in the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola and in the entire Lake Maggiore basin, yet it only took on city status from 2007: before that, Intra and Pallanza, the two settlements on either side of the promontory whose union, together with the hillside hamlets and Suna, gave rise to today's town, had already separately held that title.
