The patron saint of Vercelli is Saint Eusebius, celebrated on 1 August in the duomo dedicated to him, the Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of Sant'Eusebio. Consecrated bishop in 345 by Pope Julius I, he was chronologically the first bishop of all Piedmont, of which he later became patron together with the city of Vercelli: Sardinian by birth and a strong personality, he was above all a promoter of the Marian cult of the Black Madonna, imported from the Holy Land, and founder of the sanctuary of Oropa.
A solemn exposition of the Shroud was held in the cathedral in 1560. The city also preserves the basilica of Sant'Andrea, built between 1219 and 1227 at the will of Cardinal Guala Bicheri: one of the very first examples of transalpine Gothic in Italy, blended with Lombard Romanesque style, its gabled facade flanked by two spired bell towers and clad in green Varallo stone. In 1228 the Studium arose in Vercelli, the first university in Piedmont, while among the city's library treasures stand out the Vercelli Book and the Codex Vercellensis, among the oldest texts written in Old English.
