SUSA, a province of the department of Turin, in the continental part of the kingdom of Sardinia. It is on the frontier towards France. It is 704 square miles in extent, and forms a large valley with two terminations or horns, through one of which is the road over Mount Genèvre to France by the Cottian Alps, and the other passes over Mount Cenis, and so into Savoy; but the latter is by far the preferable road. In the western part of the province lofty rugged rocks and even glaciers are to be seen; but in the west is an alternation of valleys and gentle hills, with a fertile soil watered by the river Dora, which runs to Turin. The district produces abundance of wine, flax, hemp, and silk, but is deficient in corn, and chestnuts are much used as a substitute for grain. There are iron mines and marble quarries worked; and much linen is spun and woven. The province has the title of a marquisate, and contains a city, with sixty-five towns and villages, and about 70,000 inhabitants.
The capital is the city of the same name at the foot of the Alps, on the river Dora, which here receives the Erische. The town is badly fortified, and is rather meanly
built. It is the see of a bishop, has a cathedral and two monasteries, with nearly 2000 inhabitants, whose chief occupation is making gloves, and spinning cotton thread. It is a place of great antiquity, and must have been formerly of importance in a military view, from its situation on the only road then known from Gaul into Italy; to defend which it had the castles of Santa Maria and La Brumette, which were destroyed by the French in 1796. Here stands a beautiful triumphal arch in honour of Augustus, which is in good preservation. This place is twenty-three miles from Turin, in longitude , and latitude