A typical presence in the rural landscape of the Novi Ligure area are the traditional earthen houses or trunere that can still be found in the plain in front of the city. These are ancient buildings for residential or agricultural use, built according to the traditional use of unfired earth, sometimes added with straw. At one time they were partly demolished, but now, those that still exist, are considered a heritage of local tradition to be preserved. Novi Ligure is the only municipality in Piedmont, as well as in northern Italy, to be a member of the National Association of Raw Earth Municipalities.

Foreign Exchange Fairs arose, in the 12th century, in parallel with Commodity Fairs, as an evolution of the latter, as a result of the increasing influx of different and often altered currencies, as well as the difficulty of distance payments. The Novi Ligure Exchange Fair was established by the Genoese in 1621 and was held until 1692. It achieved great notoriety by becoming one of the most important Fairs in Europe, after Frankfurt and Leipzig. Fairs were held at predetermined times:

Feb. 1 – Apparition Fair

May 2 – Easter Fair

August 1 – August Fair

November 2 – Fair of the Saints

The negotiations took place in the noble palaces, now called “painted palaces,” belonging to Genoese noble families, such as Doria, Balbi, Spinola, Negroni, Centurioni, Durazzo, and Dellepiane. Most of these palaces gift painted in green or red, according to various customs.

Connected with the Foreign Exchange Fairs, mints were born where coins were struck, at the initiative of the Spinola family. The main mints were located in Ronco Scrivia, Arquata Scrivia, Rocchetta Ligure, Albera Ligure and Tassarolo, in whose castle the room where coinage was struck is still visible.

In the Genoa State Archives and at the Study and Documentation Center for Economic History “Doria Archives” in the Salvago Raggi Fund, documents are preserved concerning the Mint of Ronco Scrivia, which was very active in the seventeenth century, when it began to print a small coin called “luigino,” which the Genoese sent to the Ottoman Empire. These localities in Oltregiogo also became a small stop on the world silver circuit, which from the Americas reached Spain, then Genoa and, once the coin was printed, continued to the great ports of the Levant, such as Smyrna and Constantinople, and from there, to Asia.

The Collegiate Church of St. Mary of the Assumption, whose origins may date back to early Christian times, was consecrated a few years after construction was completed in 1684.

The high altar was made in 1676 by a Genoese workshop; at that time, the relics of St. Victor were moved to the sacellum of this altar. Of particular interest is the wooden group placed above it, representing the “Calvary” consisting of the Crucifix and four almost life-size statues depicting Magdalene, St. John the Evangelist, St. Peter and St. Martha.

The chapel at the end of the right aisle is decorated with stucco work designed by Andrea Pozzo (Jesuit architect and artist, Trent, 1642-Vienna, 1709). On the 17th-century altar is a 15th-century wooden statue known as the “Beata Vergine Lagrimosa,” patron saint of the city. Two important paintings are preserved in the same chapel: the Annunciation with Donor attributed to Domenico Fiasella of Genoa and dated 1660. The painting, a votive gift from the Spinola family, pendants the night scene of the Nativity of the Virgin (1666) by Fiasella’s main collaborator, pupil and brother-in-law Giovanni Battista Casoni.

The Oratory was built between the 15th and 16th centuries by the Compagnia dei Disciplinati.

An important Calvary is preserved here, consisting of 23 life-size wooden statues by the sculptor known as Daniele Fiammingo, as well as a Lamentation over Christ consisting of eight terracotta figures; both groups, linked together, date from the second half of the 1500s.

A model of Novi Ligure in 1750, when the walls and four access points were still present, can be seen inside.

The Romualdo Marenco Theater, originally named after King Charles Albert, was erected beginning in 1837 by a company consisting of 37 citizens. The inauguration took place on October 02, 1839.

In the first half of the 20th century, the building was dedicated to Maestro Romuald Marenco, a great Novese composer and conductor.

The theater, conceived as an autonomous construction on the nineteenth-century model of the Italian-style theater, was designed by architect Giuseppe Becchi with the approval of his colleague Luigi Canonica, the top theatrical expert of the time and already a consultant in the design of the Carlo felice Theater in Genoa. The historic “horseshoe-shaped” hall was built with three tiers of overlapping stage and the upper gallery facing each other.

In 1943, a fire destroyed the stage apparatus: the theater remained uninhabitable until 1947. After a brief interlude dedicated to dancing at the 1952 Carnival, in 1961 there was even talk of demolition, averted by the intervention of the Superintendent of Fine Arts.

In the year 2004, the Marenco Theater Foundation was born, which took charge of the restoration of the theater, which reopened in 2019, with the intervention of the City Administration and the Cral Alessandria Foundation.

Opened in 2003, the Museo dei Campionissimi is Europe’s largest cycling museum. A tribute dedicated to Piedmontese cycling champions such as Costante Girardengo, who was born in Novi and began his formidable sporting career, and Fausto Coppi, who was an honorary citizen of Novi. A special central track divides and organizes the exhibition space, but more importantly, it represents the evolution of the road surface. In the large rooms to the side of the track, an ideal history of the Milan-San Remo through pictures and pages from sports newspapers finds its place. At the back of the central hall is a curious display of bicycles related to trades. The hall of the Campionissimi is enriched with memorabilia and unpublished accounts of the glory of Girardengo and Coppi. The other audiovisual rooms present to the public, in addition to period films, visual and audio testimonies of spectacular arrivals or epochal duels. Through the films it is possible to enrich information about the exhibits or relive important moments in the history of road or dirt cycling.