Confienza

The name of Confienza probably comes from confluentia: two rivers met here, perhaps the Sesia and the Agogna, which later changed their course. The confluence is gone, but it stayed on the coat of arms, adopted in 1930 and used freely even without a decree of concession: on it are two creatures which the blazon describes as «fish twisted about with dragons' heads» pouring water into a river. In fact, the same source says, they are simply two heraldic dolphins.

The village belonged to the bishop of Vercelli from 999, by donation of Otto III, and it stayed allied with Vercelli for a long time, despite the pressure of Pavia, which obtained rule over it only in 1220 from Frederick II. Then it changed hands many times — to the Beccaria, to Alberico da Barbiano together with Belgioioso, to Gian Giacomo Trivulzio during the French occupation — before returning to the Barbiano of Belgioioso, who held it until the end of feudalism. For almost forty years it was also border land: the Lomellina had passed to the Savoy in 1707, while Confienza reached them only in 1743, along with the whole Vigevanasco. Of the castle the civic tower remains.