Borgo Priolo

The comune is younger than its own parts: it was formed in 1928 by joining the ancient comune of Torre del Monte with that of Staghiglione. The name appears for the first time in 1250, in the list of the lands of the Oltrepò Pavese, as Burgum Pirrioli cum Monte Santa Marie — and that second place name is today's Torre del Monte, which for centuries was the more important of the two. Known since 1111, it was already the main centre of the area in 1164, when it was united to the Pavian territory; in the first half of the twelfth century it took in the comune of Calvignano with all its hamlets, until Calvignano detached itself in 1181. Its territory also held Borgo Priolo, Olesi, Torrazzetta, Boffinisio, Cà de' Guerci and Pianetta, and the seat of the comune stood in the locality of Torre Bianchina.

Then it lost everything, its name included. In 1466 Torre del Monte was inside the fief of Casteggio, a few years later inside that of Montebello, of the Beccaria; when the Beccaria of Montebello died out in 1629, the fief passed to some Spanish lords, but in 1650 Torre del Monte was dismembered from it and started going round again: to the Dal Pozzo, to the Beccaria del Mezzano in 1692 and at last to the counts Dàttili, while the hamlets of Torrazzetta and Olesi had in that same 1692 been enfeoffed to the Paleari. In 1928 the new comune took the name of the other centre, Borgo Priolo; and in the middle of the nineteen forties Torre del Monte, by then a simple frazione, changed its name too and became Cappelletta. Today the territory reads in three bands — the plain, the low and middle hills, the high hills up to Monte Reale — and the comune is the leader, together with six others, of the commercial district of the boroughs and the castles.