Arona

Arona may refer to:

Places

  • Arona, Piedmont, a town in the Province of Novara, Italy
  • Arona, Tenerife, a municipality in the Canary Islands
  • Arona, Pennsylvania, United States
  • Arona parish, Latvia
  • Persons

  • Arona Mané (born 1946), Senegalese Olympic wrestler
  • Danilo Arona (born 1950), Italian writer
  • Ricardo Arona (born 1978), Brazilian mixed martial artist
  • Tinirau Arona (born 1989), New Zealand rugby league player
  • See also

  • Aronas, Greece
  • Arona, Piedmont

    Arona (Italian pronunciation: [aˈroːna]; Aruna [aˈruna] in Western Lombard) is a town and comune on Lake Maggiore, in the province of Novara (northern Italy). Its main economic activity is tourism, especially from Milan, France and Germany.

    History

    Archaeological findings have shown that the area of what today is Arona was settled from the 18th13th centuries BC. Later it was a possession of the Celts, the Romans and the Lombards.

    In the 11th century the Benedictine abbey of Saints Gratianus and Felinus, Martyrs, was founded.

    After the siege and destruction of Milan in 1162 by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, many of the exiled took refuge in Arona.

    Later the city was a possession of the Torriani and (from 1277) of the Visconti families. In the early 14th century the city became a free commune under the suzerainty of the abbey. In 1439 it was acquired by Vitaliano Borromeo and, as a result, the House of Borromeo.

    Main sights

    Arona's main attractions include:

  • Sancarlone. This giant statue of Saint Charles Borromeo was commissioned by Cardinal Federico Borromeo, and construction began in 1614, completed in 1698. At 35.10 metres (115.2 ft) it was the largest bronze standing statue in the world, still second only to the Statue of Liberty. It is said that the architects behind the Statue of Liberty consulted the blueprints of the Sancarlone when laying out their own. The statue was intended as part of a complex of buildings and chapels celebrating the life of St. Charles, of which only three chapels were completed. Next to the statue are the 17th-century basilica and the former Archbishop's Palace. A smaller version of the statue, the Sancarlino, can be seen in Corso Cavour in the town.
  • Podcasts:

    PLAYLIST TIME:
    ×