  We present UBV CCD observations obtained in the field of the northern open
cluster NGC 1220, for which little information is available. We provide also BV
CCD photometry of a field 5$^{\prime}$ northward of NGC 1220 to take into
account field star contamination. We argue that NGC 1220 is a young compact
open cluster, for which we estimate a core radius in the range $1.5-2.0$
arcmin. We identify 26 likely candidate members with spectral type earlier than
$A5$, down to $V_o$=15.00 mag on the basis of the position in the two-colour
Diagram and in the Colour Magnitude Diagrams (CMDs). By analyzing the
distribution of these stars in the colour-colour and CMDs, we find that NGC
1220 has a reddening E$(B-V)=0.70\pm0.15$ mag, is placed $1800\pm200$ pc
distant from the Sun, and has an age of about 60 Myrs. The cluster turns out to
be located about 120 pc above the Galactic plane, relatively high with respect
to its age.
