Preseglie

Tradition says the name of Preseglie comes from a roll-call. In Roman times there is said to have been here a colony of prisoners forced to work the mines of Monte Visello, shut up at night in a castrum and guarded by legionaries; every evening the slaves were counted, and for each one the guard answered «Praesens est ille», that one is present. From there Presilli, then Preseio and Presei, and at last Preseglie. There is also a more prosaic explanation — the Latin praedium, the farm, since the territory is divided into a great many «predi» — but the mines really did exist: galena, that is silver-bearing lead, at Pirla, Bamboi and Visello, and copper at Visello. In 1244 the De Salis nobles undertook to maintain two gastaldi to watch over the mines and the miners.

With the sanctuary of the Madonna di Visello, of 1527, is linked instead a story about milk. A mute shepherd boy from Gazzane, Bonfadino Dossi, saw the Virgin while grazing his flock; to overcome his mistrust she ordered him to milk a heifer barely six months old, and the boy, astounded, spoke for the first time in his life only to say «But she doesn't give milk!». Then he milked her, and the milk came in abundance. In the village, hearing him speak, they believed him. The owner of the land, Giovanni Battista Montini, gave it so that the church might be built there; the sanctuary was consecrated in 1652.