Cangelasio is located on the limit between the territories of Parma and Piacenza, close to the castles of Vigoleno and Scipione, to the city of Salsomaggiore Terme and the Stirone River. This was a land full of trades during the medieval age, because of the most precious well of the world: the salt.

It was the year 1200 when the monk of the abbey of Chiaravalle della Colomba, owner of this marshy territories between Parma and Piacenza, decided to install himself in Cangelasio, in order to produce salt and to begin important trades with others locality of the land. His name was Alberto Alamanno - magistro et priore glanzie Cangelasii.

During the centuries, the property of almost all of those territories moved through the hands of many aristocratic people such as Federico II of Svevia, the Pallavicino Family and Napoleon Bonaparte. The legend says that the monk Alberto had “hidden” from the maps some forests, located exactly on Cangelasio: this way only his descendant would have known about his trades, so those could have been continued in time without a proper jurisdiction on them.

In those places there still a grange, fixed up in the last years, which was back in time a warehouse where to stock salt, but has inside also a fireplace and a furnace: this warehouse was probably a place of salt production, hidden to the abbey.  

In the tower, built later, next to the grange, Napoleon found a document called “The Secret of the Alamanno” that used to testify all of the Alamanno’s trades: unfortunately, it has gone missing.

The owners of the agritourism “Antica Torre”, who renewed the building, wanted to testify it with a beautiful painting in the vault of the grange.