Ivrea - Duomo di Santa Maria

The first Christian church was built here at the site of a Roman temple in the 4th century. A tree nave basilica existed in the 9th century. A Romanesque cathedral was built, when Bishop Warmund (= Warmondo) had his episcopal see here, end of the 10th century. It is known, that this church had a "westwerk", following the Ottonian architecture, popular at that time north of the Alpes.

Alterations and rebuildings were undertaken in the 13th, 15th and 16th century. In 1785 it was rebuilt again in a Baroque style. The eastern part of the church, with the crypt, the apse and the two towers suvived the "modernisation" of the 18th century, as well as this last part of the medieval cloister.

Probably here (and in the Bishop´s palace) a land dispute was discussed between Bishop Warmund and Arduin of Ivrea, who had become Margrave of Ivrea in 990. This was a conflict between the regional (North-Italian) nobility and the (German) emperors, who appointed the bishops.

From 996 to 998, Warmund was forced from his see by Arduin. After in 999 the bishop of Vercelli was killed when Arduin's men, who had burned down his church with him and his canons inside, Warmund excommunicated Arduin. This did not stop Arduin´s career, he became King of Italy in 1002.

Actually Arduin was still remembered here, when at the university of Ivrea, a group of enthusiasts created "Arduino", a small open source computer, that became very popular wordwide.