Tortona Farm

In the Holy Roman Empire of the 10th century there was the "Contea di Tortona", as evidenced by the fact that Otto the Great established the Bishop-Contea of Tortona, with jurisdiction on the urban territory of Tortona, and in the presence of the lay Count of Tortona whose jurisdiction was limited to the neighboring rural territory.

The area Toucan, originally about as long as it is today diocese, suffered a severe blow in 1164 when the enemy Pavia, supported by its very powerful protector the emperor Frederick Barbarossa, took away what from that moment was known as Oltrepò Pavese.^[1]

In 1155, when Barbarossa descended to Italy to bring the municipalities under imperial control, the city remained faithful to the alliance with Milan and fought with the Pavesi, allies with the emperor. Unconfited, the city was plundered and destroyed by the peacocks, but it was rebuilt quickly later with the help of the Milanese. The Milan of the middle of the fourteenth century was governed by a couple of brothers whose mutual competition and ambition resulted in a virtuous effect for the fortunes of the Visconti family. Luchino turned his military and diplomatic expansionist myres to the south-west beyond Pavia and the Po, and in 1347 he managed to include in his domains the city of Tortona, his ally and member of the Lombard League, as well as the neighbor Alessandria.^[2]

The meneghino rule was more stable and lasted for four centuries, even after the state of Milan became part of the Kingdom of Spain. It was when Lombardy passed to Austria at the beginning of the eighteenth century that the pressure of Casa Savoia began to erode the Milanese territory through a uninhibited waltz of alliances between French and German among the many European wars of the period. During the Polish War of Succession, Piedmont's troops proceeded in 1735 to the general invasion, and peace stipulated by the Treaty of Vienna (1738) internationally recognized the passage of sovereignty over Tortona.^[3]