Sale is part of the tourist area around the Po river called ‘Po plain Reserve’. It is located in the centre of the lower Scrivia valley, in a plain stretching among the Tanaro, Scrivia and Po rivers in a fertile territory.
Among the typical products of Sale, the home-made breadsticks of Santo Stefano and the zucchini are worth mentioning.

Its origins date back to the 3rd - 4th centuries A.D. In 490 the Goths established in these swampy places, on a narrow territory, where they built a fortress. Three tribes already inhabited the zone and they were called the ‘Tre Sale’ from the Gothic word ‘sail’, which means ‘home’. Some inhabitants of the ‘Sale’ moved to the fortified enclosure around 600 AD and ‘Oppidum Salarum’ was settled.
In 1164 Sale was under the rule of Pavia and then, in 1363, of the Visconti family, of Francesco Bussone, Count of Carmagnola, and subsequentely it was conquered by the Sforza family.
From 1535 to 1748 the town was dominated by Spain and then (1714-1744) by Austria. After the treaty peace of Aquisgrana Sale acknowledged the lordship of the Savoy family. As borderland it was subjected to various occupations and it has been transition point of many belligerent troops for several years.
Sale was included in the province of Voghera until 1818 and then it was aggregated to the province of Tortona.

main sights:
- the church of Santa Maria e San Siro (11th century) of Romanesque-Gothic origins;
- the church of San Giovanni with a wonderful bell tower of the 14th century;
- the church of San Calogero (the original church dates back to the 9th century and was rebuilt in the 15th century).

> hamlets: Gerbidi
> inhabitants denomination: salesi


CHIESA DI SANTA MARIA E SAN SIRO
The peace treaty between Tortona and Sale was signed in the church of Santa Maria e San Siro at Sale in 1165. The church itself has three naves and is the result of extensive reconstruction works executed over the 14th and 15th centuries. The façade, in perforated brick with terracotta decoration, dates back to the early 15th century with the original part on the right hand side; the left hand side and the bell tower collapsed after an earthquake in 1704, after which the reconstruction work was carried out.
Inside the church there are interesting fragments of frescoes completed between 1460 and 1470 by a Lombard artist known as Maestro of the Maggi, who was named after the family, who commissioned the work.
In 1938 it was internally renovated by the Tortonese painter Domenico Fossati, and the restoration of the frescoes in the presbitery have been started from 1984.

worth seeing:
- valuable frescoes belonging to the fifteenth century Lombard school.
- on the left side of the church a cycle dedicated to Christ’s death is to be found. These frescoes were realized by local painters and date probably back to the early fifteenth century.
- a beautiful fresco dating from the first quarter of the 16th century representing 'the holy Virgin and Elizabeth'.

CHIESA DI SAN CALOGERO
The ancient parish church of San Calogero was already cited in 1162. The present church was rebuilt between the 15th and the 16th centuries while the remains of the pre-existing parish church were demolished in 1576. The façade was renovated in 1926-27.
Worth mentioning is the sixteenth century plate Madonna col Bambino, S. Giovannino, S. Giuseppe, S. Rocco and S. Sebastiano located at the bottom of the presbytery. The canvass Madonna con Bambino, S. Calocero and S.Rocco (16th century) decorates the first chapel in the left side nave.

CHIESA DI SAN GIOVANNI
Built in late Gothic style, the church of San Giovanni was cited for the first time in 1009. The foundation of the present church dates back to 1453. The impressive bell tower was built a few years later.
The church was completely refurbished in the will of the priest Secondo Da Milano, in charge from 1943 to 2000. The altar of the ‘Madonna Immacolata’, built in 1947 and located in the presbytery, houses a polychrome wooden statue of the early 18th century and a sixteenth-seventeenth centuries canvass representing the Crocifissione con S.Diego, S.Bernardino e quattro committenti ('Crucifixion with St. Diego, St. Bernardino and four clients'). In the chapel on the right-hand of the presbytery is located the wooden statue of the Madonna Assunta and some canvasses decorate the side altars.

n. inhabitants: 4357

geographical zone: north-west of Italy, Piedmont Region, province of Alessandria, Scrivia valley

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