The thousand-year history of the city of Ivrea begins in 100 BC with the allocation of Roman garrisons to defend the Via Gallica, which unites the Canavese with the entrance to the Val d’Aosta.
With the Roman urban development based on cardo and decumano, the new city called Eporedia arose.
The amphitheater on the way to Vercelli and the foundations of some buildings in the historic center are still visible from the Roman period. The Cathedral of Ivrea, was built in the fourth century on the remains of an ancient pagan temple placed on a hill in the old part of the city.
The two apsidal towers and the frescoed crypt are preserved from the first construction.
In the Lombard period, between the 5th and the 7th centuries, Ivrea became an important political center thanks to the figure of the Marquis Arduino d’Ivrea who for about thirty years imposed himself as a prominent figure in the politics of northern Italy, even obtaining the royal title. and the city was the capital of one of the Longobard Duchies.
The “Castle of the Red Towers” is the name with which the Castle of Ivrea is known. It stands near the Duomo and the bishop’s palace and its construction dates back to 1385, at the behest of Amedeo VI of Savoy, called the Conte Verde.
The Tower of Saint Stephen was originally the bell tower of the homonymous Benedictine abbey of Ivrea, built in the 11th century, of which only the bell tower remains, in the center of the city’s public gardens.
