Villadossola lies in the Val d'Ossola, at the mouth of the Antrona valley, where the Roman road Severiana Augusta ran from Milan towards the Simplon. In the Middle Ages it was called Villa: the present name was decided by the town council on 25 October 1862 and granted by Victor Emmanuel II by decree of 14 December that year.
At the end of the eighteenth century the blacksmith Pietro Maria Ceretti set up furnaces and hammers here to work the iron of the Antrona valley; from that the Ossola steel industry grew. On 8 November 1943, two months after the armistice, Villadossola saw one of the first risings against the German occupation, put down in blood. The name of Vinavil, made here, comes from vinyl acetate and Villadossola.
chiesa della Beata Vergine Assunta · chiesa di San Bartolomeo
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Next up: Saint Bartholomew, patron of one of the Ossola's most important Romanesque monuments, Tuesday 24 August
Nearest airport: Milano Malpensa, 61 km away
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📅 Every year, on 24 August
Villadossola celebrates Saint Bartholomew on 24 August; the church dedicated to him, with an original 9th-century structure still recognisable despite its 17th-century extension, is one of the most important Romanesque monuments in the whole Ossola.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Villadossola, but an easy day trip away.
