A small village nestled at the edge of the Monferrato hills, the earliest records of a commune date back to 1016, when several families rebelled against the Church of Vercelli and gathered under the name Soalingellum. The village’s history is closely tied to that of the wider Monferrato region, a land long contested by rival powers and subjected over the centuries to the incursions of French and Spanish forces, until finally, in 1713, it became part of the Savoy Duchy.

The toponym is probably of Germanic origin and is believed to derive from the personal name Swal, combined with the suffix “ing,” meaning “belonging to,” and the diminutive “elus,” giving an interpretation along the lines of “small territory belonging to a leader named Swala.”

The ancient fortress was built in the 12th century by a vassal of the Marquises of Monferrato. Over the centuries it had several owners: the De Catena – De Gabiano family, the Rivetta, the Della Sala, the Pezzana, and the Corsino families. In 1522, the castle hosted some nobles from Casale fleeing a plague that was claiming many lives. It suffered pillaging and devastation at the hands of Spanish and German forces during the protracted wars centered around the citadel of Casale. In the 18th century, the castle came into the possession of the Scarampi family of Camino, later passing to the Calvi di Bergolo family, and finally to Pietro Provera, whose daughter Ermelinda married Achille Lorenzon of Treviso; their daughter Teresita went on to marry Count Alfonso Gaetani D’Oriseo.