Polonghera

The village probably began in the early Middle Ages as a store for salt from the county of Nice: here the load went onto rafts and down the Po to Turin. In 1409 the Acaia seized Polonghera and gave it, with a count's title, to Ludovico Costa of Chieri, who repaired the castle. The arms remember it: the helmet of investiture, three Acaia stars and the laurel of their victory over the Provana after a six-day siege.

Of the castle, much altered and now a private house, the tall square tower survives, whitewashed under a brick cornice. The parish church of San Pietro in Vincoli, rebuilt in 1638, keeps a sixteenth-century font.