In Spigno di Monferrato is a plaque commemorating the passage of Pope Pius VII. March 20, 1814 plaque commemorating the passage of Pope Pius VII when he returned to Rome from Fontainebleau. Napoleon, following the papal refusal to accept conditions that would place the Church under state control, ordered the arrest of Pius VII and his imprisonment first in Savona, then in Fontainebleau (1809). In 1814, the freed pope, on his return to Rome, stopped in Spigno on March 20, 1814. For the hospitality he received he donated to the population a canopy that was used in processions. Recently restored.
