Sauze d'Oulx is a town and comune

Comune

In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

in the province of Turin

Province of Turin

The Province of Turin is a province in the Piedmont region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Turin.It has an area of 6,830 km², and a total population of 2,277,686 . There are 315 comuni in the province – the most of any province in Italy...

, Piedmont

Piedmont

Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...

 (northern italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

) located 80 kilometres from Turin in the Val di Susa, at the foot of monte Genevris (2,536 m).

It was the site of the Freestyle Skiing

Freestyle skiing

Freestyle skiing is form of skiing which used to encompass two disciplines: aerials, and moguls. Except the two disciplines mentioned earlier Freestyle Skiing now consists of Skicross, Half Pipe and Slope Style...

 events of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. Together with the villages of Pragelato

Pragelato

Pragelato is a comune in the Province of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 60 km west of Turin, in the upper Val Chisone. The name Pragelato, meaning ‘icy meadow’, has been derived from the harsh climate and the fact that the ground is covered with ice for long periods...

, Sestriere

Sestriere

Sestriere is an alpine village in Italy, a comune of the Province of Turin. It is from the French border. Its name derives from Latin: ad petram sistrariam, that is at sixty Roman miles from Turin....

, Claviere

Claviere

Claviere is a comune in the Province of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 80 km west of Turin, on the border with France....

, Cesana Torinese

Cesana Torinese

Cesana Torinese is a comune in the Province of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 70 km west of Turin, on the border with France.-External links:*...

, San Sicario and Montgenèvre

Montgenèvre

Montgenèvre is a commune of the Hautes-Alpes department in southeastern France.-Geography:Montgenèvre is located in the French Cottian Alps. It is on the Franco-Italian border at the top of the Col de Montgenèvre....

, in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, it makes up the Via Lattea

Via Lattea

The Via Lattea is a winter sports area in the Italian and French Alps, straddling the French-Italian border at Claviere/Montgenèvre. Located some 70km west of Turin, it comprises the five Piedmontese resorts of Claviere , Sansicario , Sauze d'Oulx , Pragelato and Sestriere and additionally the...

 (Milky Way) skiing area.

Since the beginning of the 19th century, Sauze d'Oulx has been a destination for the Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

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

History

Archaeological findings have proved the presence of Celt

Celt

The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....

ic settlements in the pre-Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 age. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire

Western Roman Empire

The Western Roman Empire was the western half of the Roman Empire after its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, commonly referred to today as the Byzantine Empire....

, in the Middle Ages it was owned by the Novalesa Abbey

Novalesa Abbey

Novalesa Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in 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 Cenis Pass. The founder, Abbo of Provence, was a local Frankish governor. The abbey stands on the former Via...

 and then by the prevosts of Oulx

Oulx

Oulx is a comune in the Province of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 70 km west of Turin, in the Susa Valley on the border with France.-Names:...

. From 1000, it was part of the Dauphiné

Dauphiné

The Dauphiné or Dauphiné Viennois is a former province in southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of :Isère, :Drôme, and :Hautes-Alpes....

 and then of the Escartons Republic (until 1343); with the Treaty of Utrecht

Treaty of Utrecht

The Treaty of Utrecht, which established the Peace of Utrecht, comprises a series of individual peace treaties, rather than a single document, signed by the belligerents in the War of Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht in March and April 1713...

 (1713) France gave it to the house of Savoy

House of Savoy

The House of Savoy was formed in the early 11th century in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, it grew from ruling a small county in that region to eventually rule the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 until the end of World War II, king of Croatia and King of Armenia...

; in 1747 its territory was the seat of the Battle of Assietta

Battle of Assietta

The Battle of Assietta was fought in the Italian campaign of the War of the Austrian Succession on July 19, 1747. It resulted in a defeat for France against the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia.-Background:...

 between France and Savoy's Kingdom of Sardinia

Kingdom of Sardinia

The Kingdom of Sardinia consisted of the island of Sardinia first as a part of the Crown of Aragon and subsequently the Spanish Empire , and second as a part of the composite state of the House of Savoy . Its capital was originally Cagliari, in the south of the island, and later Turin, on the...

.

During the Fascist era

Italian Fascism

Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...

, in 1928, its name was changed to Salice d'Ulzio, according to a wrong etymological interpretation of "Sauze" as "salice" (Italian for willow

Willow

Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...

). After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

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