The patrons of Novara di Sicilia are Maria Santissima Assunta and Saint Hugh the abbot, celebrated on 15 and 16 August. Saint Hugh founded in 1171, under King Roger II, the abbey of Santa Maria Nucaria: Sicily's first Cistercian building, which still stands today five kilometres from the town, in the hamlet of Badiavecchia, with the bare arches typical of the order's sober architecture.
In the upper part of the town stands the 17th-century church of Sant'Ugo Abate, built together with the Cistercian monastery later destroyed: it keeps a wooden reliquary, the so-called jar of Saint Hugh — actually an Arab vase —, a wooden crucifix and a panel of the Annunciation painted in 1570 by Statera. Further downhill, reached by via Dante Alighieri or a paved road, stands the 16th-century duomo di Santa Maria Assunta, with three naves marked by monolithic stone columns.
