Italy: Basilica of San Gaudenzio in Novara

Last Tuesday I got three postcards: one from Italy, one from Germany and one from Austria.

The card from Italy shows the Basilica of San Gaudenzio in Novara. Novara is a city in northwest Italy. It is the capital city of the province of Novara and the second largest city in Piedmont after Turin. It is an important crossroads for commercial traffic along the routes from Milan to Turin and from Genoa to Switzerland. The Basilica of San Gaudenzio is the highest point in the city and its symbol. The basilica itself was built in the 16th and 17th century, but the monumental cupola was just added in the 19th century. Novara is also the seat of the bishop, although his seat is not the basilica, but the Novara Cathedral. 

One of Italy's two EUROPA stamps was used on the card (issued 29-06-2020). The map on the card looks very impressive, but it is unfortunately too small to see any details. Even more interesting are actually the postmarks. Used directly on the stamp is the new postmark about Covid-19 mentioning The Strength of Italy. A special postmark from the philatelic shop in Novara is next to the stamp. During the travel the card got also cancelled with multiple machine postmarks.

Thank You very much Davide!