Saluzzo

Saluzzo rises on a hill above the Piedmontese plain, beneath the high western Alps. It was the seat of a marquisate whose lands stretched between the mountains, the Po and the Stura. For centuries its rulers navigated the competing ambitions of France and the House of Savoy.

Under Ludovico I, who ruled from 1416 to 1475, Saluzzo enjoyed a period of prosperity and acted as a mediator among neighbouring powers. His successor Ludovico II had a tunnel cut through the mountains near Monviso. Savoy besieged the marquisate in 1486, and Ludovico briefly withdrew to France before regaining power in 1490. After Ludovico II died, struggles among his sons weakened and impoverished the state. France occupied Saluzzo in 1548; the marquisate was ceded to Savoy in 1601.