The name of Briaglia is first read in a deed of the Casotto charterhouse dated 1276, by which Otta Brialia and Pietro Parcinero sell the monastery three giornate of land; it would come from the owners' place of origin. For centuries the village stayed tied to Vico, today Vicoforte, and depended on its pieve: only in 1726 was the church of the Invention of the Holy Cross made a parish of its own. In the deconsecrated church of San Giovanni are remains that some have fancifully assigned to prehistoric tribes.
Civil autonomy came much later: by the royal letters patent of 1796 Victor Amadeus III separated Briaglia from Vico. But the push had come from the place itself, and the will of don Andrea Borsarelli, a few years earlier, records that the villagers had met to ask for a separate community; his bequest served as the new comune's first endowment. The arms bear a red cross patty on silver and, in base, the motto “Vict Amed”.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Briaglia
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Briaglia, but an easy day trip away.