Sale

The town was born out of three: it is supposed there were three Sale, the chief one called Sala Roderadi, which merged in Gothic or Lombard times. The clue is that the town has three archpresbyteries. The union must have been complete by the tenth century, since a document of 933 speaks of a sale of land in loco Salae.

But only the built-up part merged: the three Sale kept their people and properties separate for centuries, so the lordships covered not the whole town but only a share of it. Until 1817 the parishes were personal, not territorial: you belonged to the parish — and so to the diocese, Tortona or Pavia — of your ancestors, wherever you actually lived.