Novellara is a small capital in the Po Valley, shaped in the typical Renaissance style that was fashionable at the time. Its most remarkable building is the gigantic 14th-century Rocca dei Gonzaga (fortress of Novellara’s Gonzaga line), which in the 15th-century was turned into the site of a noble court. Inside this fort, in lavishly decorated halls, are the town’s cultural facilities: the Library, Museo Gonzaga (a museum), the historical archive, the Theatre and a permanent exhibition dedicated to rural culture. 

Close to this building is Piazza Unità d’Italia, the beating heart of Novellara, a large square designed during the Renaissance, encircled by wide porticos and overlooked by the Church Collegiata di Santo Stefano. Near the square there are other churches: the Chiesa dei Servi (which is now an orthodox church), and the Santuario della Beata Vergine della Fossetta (a 17th-century sanctuary), and the former Convento dei Gesuiti (A Jesuits‘ monastery), which contains a hall dedicated to the ancient Jesuit pharmacy.

Not far from the city centre are the Hindu Temple and the Sikh Temple, among the most important in all of Europe. 

Novellara was also the cradle of figures such as Vivaldo Poli, one of the leading artists from Reggio in the aftermath of the war, who left to his hometown several artworks once belonging to the collection of Arrigo Negri, a childhood friend of Vivaldo’s, later donated to the municipality in 1995. This series of watercolors, tempera and oil paintings dates back to a period spanning between 1930 and 1960. These works are exhibited in a hall of the Museo Gonzaga.

Every year, at the end of July, Novellara’s square and the streets of its historic centre host Miss Anguria (lit. Ms Watermelon): a festival aimed at celebrating a universally known product through gatherings, delicious traditional cuisine, parades of tractors and wagons loaded with watermelons, street performers, stands, and various contests, including one dedicated to establishing the heaviest watermelon.