The patron saint of Villadossola is Saint Bartholomew, celebrated on 24 August. The church dedicated to him is one of the most important Romanesque monuments in the Ossola: the original 9th-century structure is still clearly recognisable in the current three-nave building, despite the 17th-century extension, with a basilica layout, a semicircular apse adorned with windows, blind arches and pilasters, fine interior frescoes and wood carvings.
At the end of the 18th century, the blacksmith Pietro Maria Ceretti, from Intra, set up furnaces and forge hammers at Villadossola to exploit the iron ore mined in Valle Antrona, starting the area's iron and steel industrial settlement: the town later became an important industrial centre, especially in steelmaking with SISMA and chemistry with Rhodiatoce and its Vinavil, still active today under the Mapei group. The Villaggio SISMA district, once reserved for workers' families, still bears witness to this industrial imprint.
