The church of Saint Charles in Arona was designed by architect Francesco Maria Richini and built starting from 1614.
The building consists of a single large square room in a baroque style. The motto of the Borromeo family “Humilitas” is written in the centre of the black and white marble floor. The inside of the late baroque dome was painted in the early XVIII century.
From the two doors either side of the altar, you reach a corridor that encircles a chapel dedicated to the birth of Saint Charles. This room is a reproduction of the “room of the three lakes”: in fact, some parts of the room of the castle, where the saint was born, were brought here in order to allow better access to the pilgrims. In the chapel, two closets with wood inlay doors, preserve relics of the saint.
In the same corridor there is a sedan chair, used by Saint Charles, and a wooden model of Milan Cathedral made by the seminarists of the local seminary, on occasion of the third centenary of the saint’s death.
The Walls of Constantinople are a series of defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople (today Istanbul) since its founding as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine the Great. With numerous additions and modifications during their history, they were the last great fortification system of antiquity, and one of the most complex and elaborate systems ever built. They were also the largest and strongest fortification in both the ancient and medieval world.
Initially built by Constantine the Great, the walls surrounded the new city on all sides, protecting it against attack from both sea and land. As the city grew, the famous double line of the Theodosian Walls was built in the 5th century. Although the other sections of the walls were less elaborate, they were, when well-manned, almost impregnable for any medieval besieger.