Saluzzo

Saluzzo, a city and episcopal see of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of Cuneo, 42 m. S. of Turin by rail, 1296 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 10,306 (town), 16,208 (commune). The upper town preserves some part of the fortifications which protected it when, previous to the plague of 1630, the city had upwards of 30,000 inhabitants. The old castle of the marquises of Saluzzo now serves as a prison. Besides the Gothic cathedral (1480-1511), with the tombs of the marquises, the churches of San Giovanni (formerly San Domenico), San Bernardo and the Casa Cavazza, now the municipal museum, are noteworthy. Railways run to Cuneo and Airasca (the latter on the TurinPinerolo line) and steam tramways in various directions. The castle of Manta, in the vicinity, contains interesting 15th-century frescoes by a French artist (see P. d'Ancona in L'Arte for 1905; 94, p. 184).

The line of the marquises of Saluzzo began (1142) with Manfred, son of Boniface, marquis of Savona, and continued till 1548, when the city and territory were seized by the French. The marquises being opponents of the house of Savoy, and taking part in the struggles between France and the empire, the city often suffered severely from the fortunes of war. Henry IV. restored the marquisate to Charles Emmanuel I. of Savoy at the peace of Lyons in 1601. Among the celebrities of Saluzzo are Silvio Pellico, Bodoni, the famous printer of Parma of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and Casalis the historian of Sardinia. The history of the marquisate was written by Delfino Muletti (5 vols., 1829-1833).