Emperor Francis I by a patent dated Vienna, 12 March 1748, had created his father, colonel and ambassador Peter de Salis, together with his descendants, Counts of the Holy Roman Empire.
The right to use the name of Fane before that of de Salis was granted, by Royal Licence and Authority as published in the London Gazette, on 11 December 1835.
Soglio is located at the beginning of the Val Bregaglia (Bergell valley) which at the time belonged to the Prince-Bishopric of Chur, and is presently situated on the border between Switzerland an Italy.
The tower houses in both communities were later converted into baroque palaces (there are 5 in Soglio alone, of which the Casa Battista, also known as Hotel Palazzo Salis, built in 1630 on an older structure, is still today owned by the Swiss Salis-Soglio line).
The heyday of the family began in the 16th century, after the establishment of the Free State of the Three Leagues which ended the Prince-bishop's power in 1524.
Franz Simon von Salis-Zizers, commander of the 7th French Guards Regiment of the Bourbons and in 1809 President of the League of God's House carried out a coup in 1814.
General Johann Ulrich von Salis-Soglio was commander-in-chief of the conservative Sonderbund alliance in the Sonderbund War in 1847, while Johann Gaudenz Dietegen Count von Salis-Seewis took part in the Revolutions of 1848 as the radical democratic commander of a militia; in 1850 he was governor in Chur.