Guidelines for land registry research on the city’s buildings
The State Archive of Novara preserves various types of documentation that can be used in land registry researches.
For an overview of the different types of documents, see the downloadable inventory: Go to the Land Registry archive inventory.
Research on urban buildings can only be performed using the registers from the 19th century onwards. Though the Theresian cadastre had also involved the provincial capital in the third decade of the 1700s, the relative registers did not indicate the plots of landowners associated with the parcel numbers on the map of the city, only suburban properties.
According to the Theresian cadastre there were two types of properties:
- Beni di prima stazione (Primary properties): fields and associated rural buildings. Also internal gardens and vegetable patches in Novara.
- Beni di seconda stazione (Secondary properties): buildings, originally divided into two groups; manufacturing buildings and civilian buildings.
Documentation relating to the Theresian cadastre is preserved in the State Archive of Turin where it ended up following the annexation of the Novara area by the Kingdom of Sardinia, which took place in two phases between the two wars of the Polish and Austrian Succession.
However, copies of the documents related to the city of Novara have also been acquired from the historic municipal archive. In particular, the State Archive of Novara preserves:
- Maps of the City and Corpi Santi of Novara of 1723, in various copies and with details of the urban plan within the city walls.
- Registers and Sommarioni.
Theresian Registers and Sommarioni
As regards the registers, of particular note are the Sommarioni, which described the list of property owners by map number, with relative valuation.
There are Sommarioni for all localities that formed part of the Municipality of Novara (the Corpi Santi), i.e. Novara, Agognate, Camiano, Casalgiate, Gionzama, Isarno, Lumellogno, Olengo, Pagliate, Pernate, Riotta, Torrion Balducco, Vignale, in the major “Land Registry” archive.
There is also a series of Sommarioni regarding other localities, i.e. Buzzoletto and Calzavacca, Cameriano, Casaleggio, Casalino, Fisrengo, Gargarengo, Momo, Monticello, Nibbia, Nibbiola, Orfengo, Pisnengo, Ponzana, Proh, S. Pietro Mosezzo, S. Bernardino, Sozzago, Terdobbiate, Veruno, Vignarello, Zottico.
The Sommarioni make it possible to trace the name of the property owner beginning with the map number. However, they can’t be used to trace the owners of urban buildings within the city walls as they only include primary rural properties (beni di prima stazione).
Overview of sources for research into owners of urban buildings
The land registry archive was previously called “Series I and II”.
The first register in which it is possible to check the status of urban properties is the Catastrino of 1802, which regards secondary properties (beni di seconda stazione) (Land Registry Archive, vol. 97).
This is the first register which describes, by property owner name in alphabetical order:
- the city’s buildings, with corresponding map numbers, which still refer to the Theresian cadastre of 1723;
- street numbers;
- the capital value of the properties.
The Catastrino of 1802 has been catalogued and can be downloaded at the following link, together with the georeferenced map of the city of Novara, as it should have looked in 1723: Go to the map and the Catastrino of 1802.
For subsequent changes to the register it is once again necessary to make reference to the libri dei trasporti (property transfer registers) of the 1802 Catastrino, which have annotations and changes up to 1875. Volumes 100-103 of Series I are libri dei trasporti listed in alphabetical order according to the name of the property owner:
- vol. 100 pages 1-100, Letters A - C
- vol. 101 pages 100bis-212bis, Letters C - G
- vol. 102 pages 212bis-329, Letters L - R
- vol. 103 pages 329bis-429, Letters R - Z
In the libri dei trasporti, the plot is initially registered to the property owner indicated in the Catastrino of 1802.
The Rubrica delle case ed edifici della città e territorio di Novara (Index of houses and buildings of the city and territory of Novara) (Land Registry Archive, vol. 112 - photocopy at no. 9 of folder no. 23 of the inventories that can be consulted in the study room), contains, in alphabetical order, the names of the property owners and the relative page number indicated above the plots of volumes 100-103 of the libri dei trasporti of Series I. However, the index does not contain all the names indicated in the libri dei trasporti.
Conversely, the Rubrica, trasporto fabbricati 1802 (Building transfers index 1802) (Land Registry Archive, vol. 113 - photocopy at no. 8 of folder no. 23) of the inventories that can be consulted in the study room), contains all the names of the property owners indicated in the first series of libri dei trasporti. The annexed list to vol. 113 indicates the new street numbers, as compared with the previous ones, in chronological order and with the name of the property owner.
Series II of the Archive, relating to the 1852 urban layout, permits research of the Land Registry Archive from volume 98 onwards. Volume 98 contains an 1852 List of property owners in alphabetical order. The third column from the left “corresponding to current land registries” refers to the numbering on the map of the city and the Corpi Santi of Novara.
Volume 99 contains a second list of property owners from 1853 to 1860.
Subsequent changes make reference to the libri dei trasporti of volumes 104-111. The updates to the land registry continued until the first half of the 20th century.
The first six volumes originally listed owners in alphabetical order, in general up until the 1920s:
- vol. 104 pages 1-141, Letters A - B
- vol. 105 pages 141bis-321, Letters C - F
- vol. 106 pages 321bis-500, Letters F - L
- vol. 107 pages 502-641, Letters M - O
- vol. 108 pages 641bis-821, Letters O - S
- vol. 109 pages 821bis-1002bis, Letters S - Z
Volumes 110 and 111 present changes from 1924 to 1945.
With the original alphabetical order having been lost as a result of the continuous updating of the land registry plots, in 1997 an alphabetical list of property owners was drawn up which indicates the page number in the libri dei trasporti (page number at top, whole number on verso, bis number on recto).
The list, present among the inventories that can be consulted in the study room, at no. 10 of folder no. 23, can also be downloaded at the following link: Go to the list of Series II property owners.
How to perform research on the houses of the city
For the first three quarters of the 19th century (through to around 1875) reference should be made to the map numbers of the Theresian Cadastre. Research can be carried out on Series I of the Archive, consulting the 1802 Catastrino (available, as mentioned above, online or by making a reservation to see the original in volume 7 of the Land Registry Archive), searching the name of the property owners in the Rubrica, trasporto fabbricati 1802 (Building transfers index 1802) (Land Registry Archive, vol. 113 - photocopy at no. 8 of folder no. 23), to get an overview of the situation at the start of the century and the exact map numbers, which aren’t always clearly indicated in the libri dei trasporti.
For subsequent changes it is necessary to refer to volumes 100-103 of the libri dei trasporti, taking account of the fact that, at the top, the plot is initially registered in the name of the property owner in the Catastrino of 1802, with all subsequent changes in ownership listed thereafter. New owners that are not listed in the Catastrino because they took ownership of the property at a later date can also be searched in the Rubrica, trasporto fabbricati 1802 index (Land Registry Archive, vol. 113 - photocopy at no. 8 of folder no. 23), which indicates all the owners in volumes 100-103.
For subsequent ownership rights, from the mid 19th century to the mid 20th century, it is necessary to refer to Series II of the Land Registry Archive. It is important to remember, however, that the parcel numbers on the maps of the Municipality of Novara changed around 1890 and were only finalised with the post-Unification land survey of 1936, to which the new updated maps refer. It is therefore possible that, from this period onwards, the numbers cited in the ownership records switch from the Theresian numbers to the new numbers.
The first step is to consult the list of property owners of 1852 (vol. 98 of the Land Registry Archive), which lists owners according to the Theresian map numbers. For owners who took subsequent possession of the properties, it is necessary to consult volume 99 of the same archive, after which it is advisable to view the index of property owner names, available at the link Index of Series II property owners or in the study room at no. 10 of folder no. 23 of the inventories, which reports the corresponding page number of the libri dei trasporti in volumes 104-111 of the Land Registry Archive.
