Lomello
Lomello is a "comune" (municipality) in the Province of Pavia in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 50 km southwest of Milan and about 30 km west of Pavia, on the right bank of the Agogna. It gives its name to the surrounding area, the Lomellina. Lomello borders the following municipalities: Ferrera Erbognone, Galliavola, Mede, Ottobiano, San Giorgio di Lomellina, Semiana, Velezzo Lomellina, Villa Biscossi. History. "Laumellum" was a Roman "mansio" (a stopping place on a road) on the way of Via Regina, the main road connecting "Ticinum" (now Pavia) with Turin along the way of the Galliae. The  archeological excavations made by the Universities of Pavia and of London during the latest years, brought to light inscriptions, cemeteries of the Imperial period, as well as ruins of fortifications and an entrance door in the boundary wall. Laumellum was perhaps a pre-Roman center of the Ligures. During the Lombard domination (569-774), Lomello began to know a considerable prosperity. This was the place where Queen Theodolinda, widow of Authari, married Agilulf, Duke of Turin, in 590. Queen Gundeberga, daughter of Theodolinda and wife of Arioald, after being charged with the betrayal of her husband, was imprisoned in a  tower in 629 and released after three years, thanks to the first "Judgement of God" ever celebrated in Italy. In the Carolingian period, it was the place of a comitatus and in 1024 the fortress of Lomello was elected to the residence of the Palatine Counts while, in the same years, the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore was built as a mark of wealth and power. The commune of Pavia defeated the Counts in the 1140s and captured Lomello, owning it until 1360, when Lomello came under the domination of the Visconti, who were followed, from 1450 to 1535, by  the Sforza. Francesco Sforza assigned the County of Lomello to the Crivellis, who held it continuously until 1760.