Sauze d'Oulx () is a town and ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' in the

Metropolitan City of Turin The Metropolitan City of Turin ( it, Città metropolitana di Torino, Piedmontese: ''Sità metropolitan-a 'd Turin'') is a metropolitan city in the Piedmont region, Italy. Its capital is the city of Turin. It replaced the Province of Turin and co ...

, Piedmont (

northern Italy Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...

) located from Turin in the

Val di Susa The Susa Valley ( it, Val di Susa; pms, Valsusa; french: Val de Suse; oc, Val d'Ors) is a valley in the Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont region of northern Italy, located between the Graian Alps in the north and the Cottian Alps in the sou ...

, at the foot of Monte Genevris (). It was the site of the

freestyle skiing Freestyle skiing is a skiing discipline comprising aerials, Mogul Skiing, moguls, Ski Cross, cross, Half-pipe skiing, half-pipe, slopestyle and big air as part of the Freestyle skiing at the Winter Olympics, Winter Olympics. It can consist of a ...

events of the

2006 Olympic Winter Games The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...

. Together with the villages of

Pragelato Pragelato (also ''Pragelà''; Vivaro-Alpine: ''Prajalats'', French: Prajalats) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about west of Turin, in the upper Val Chisone. The name ''Prag ...

Sestriere Sestriere (/se'strjɛre/) ( oc, Sestrieras, pms, Ël Sestrier, french: Sestrières) is a ski resort in Piedmont, Italy, a ''comune'' (municipality) of the Metropolitan City of Turin. It is situated in Val Susa, from the French border. Its name ...

Claviere Claviere is a municipality in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont, located about west of the centre of Turin, near the border with France. Claviere is a small, but well equipped skiing village. The snow season lasts ...

Cesana Torinese Cesana Torinese (French ''Césanne'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about west of Turin, on the border with France. Cesana is a popular winter ski resort, being connected ...

San Sicario Sansicario (also spelled San Sicario) is a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Cesana Torinese (Metropolitan City of Turin) in Piedmont, north-western Italy. It lies at 1,700 m in the Val Susa and has a population of 93 people. It is a famous ...

and

Montgenèvre Montgenèvre (; oc, Montginebre; Italian: ''Monginevro'') is a commune on the Italian border in the Hautes-Alpes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. In 2018, it had a population of 456. Geography Montgen ...

, in France, it makes up the

Via Lattea The Via Lattea ( italian for ''Milky Way'') is a winter sports area in the Italian and French Alps, straddling the French-Italian border at Claviere/Montgenèvre. Located some 70 km (44 miles) west of Turin, it comprises the five Piedmon ...

(Milky Way) skiing area. Since the beginning of the 19th century, Sauze d'Oulx has been a destination for the

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

aristocracy, with its famous winter resort Sportinia and is still a skiing favourite because of its natural and accessible location.

History

Jouvencieaux Cappella Sant Antonio Abate

Archaeological findings have proved the presence of

Celt The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...

ic settlements in the pre-Roman age. After the fall of the

Western Roman Empire The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period fr ...

, in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

it was owned by the

Novalesa Abbey Novalesa Abbey ( it, Abbazia di Novalesa) is a Benedictine monastery in the Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont, Italy. It was founded in 726, and dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Andrew. Novalesa is in the Val di Susa, on the route to the Mont ...

and then by the provosts of

Oulx Oulx ( oc, label= Occitan, Ors) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about west of Turin, in the Susa Valley on the border with France. Names Like many other towns in the Susa V ...

. From 1000, it was part of the

Dauphiné The Dauphiné (, ) is a former province in Southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of Isère, Drôme and Hautes-Alpes. The Dauphiné was originally the Dauphiné of Viennois. In the 12th centu ...

and then of the

Escartons Republic The Republic of the Escartons (Italian: ''Repubblica degli Escartons''; French: ''République des Écartons'') was a collection of mountain territories located around Mount Viso in the Briançonnais, with territory between Marseille and Turin. I ...

(until 1343); with the

Treaty of Utrecht The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vacant throne o ...

(1713) France gave it to the

House of Savoy The House of Savoy ( it, Casa Savoia) was a royal dynasty that was established in 1003 in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, the family grew in power from ruling a small Alpine county north-west of Italy to absolute rule of ...

; in 1747 its territory was the seat of the

Battle of Assietta The Battle of Assietta was a significant engagement of the War of the Austrian Succession and pitted a numerically superior French force of 25,000 menBrowning, p. 311. under the command of Louis Fouquet, Chevalier de Belle-Isle against a Sardini ...

between France and Savoy's

Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...

. During the Fascist Era, in 1928, its name was changed to Salice d'Ulzio, "foreigner" words being forbidden, according to the etymological interpretation of "Sauze" as " salice" (Italian for

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

). After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the town became an autonomous ''comune'' and the previous name was restored.

References

Venues of the 2006 Winter Olympics {{Winter-Olympic-venue-stub