During the Unification of Italy, it was, together with Fenestrelle, a location for imprisonment of rebels from the former Kingdom of Two Sicilies. In the late course of World War II, Carlo Angela, father of TV science host Piero Angela and then director of the clinic for mental diseases "Villa Turina Amione" in San Maurizio, gave shelter to several antifascist opposers and Jews fleeing from German and RSI soldiers.