VARALLO SESIA  , a

town of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of Novara, from which it is 34 M . N.N.W. by rail, situated in the valley of the Sesia, 1480 ft. above sea-level . Pop . (1901) 3330 (town); 4265 (commune) . The churches of S Gaudenzio, S Maria delle Grazie and S Maria di Loreto, all contain works by Gaudenzio Ferrari (1471-1546), who was born in the neighbouring Val Duggia, while the Sacro Monte, a place of pilgrimage rising above the town (1995 ft.), is approached by a path leading past forty-five chapels containing groups of life-size painted terra-cotta figures representing scenes from sacred history, with backgrounds in fresco (by Ferrari and others), to the pilgrimage church built by Pellegrino Tibaldi after 1578 . In the works mentioned, as Burckhardt remarks, Ferrari's whole development may be traced .