In 1582 an apostolic visitor came through and left a few lines: he noted some changes to the altar, ordered the account books to be kept in order, and ruled that the bread handed out to the brothers on the patron's feast day should be given to the poor as well. It is the oldest certain record about this oratory, and also the most eloquent.
What to see
The building was inaugurated in 1404, as a plaque at the entrance says, at a time when confraternities were springing up all over Liguria. The dedication is not accidental: saint Anthony abbot is the protector of animals, in particular of stable and farmyard beasts, and Pieve was a village that relied heavily on animal husbandry.
Of the confraternity's history almost nothing is known, because the documentation was nearly all lost. What remains is the building, the date on the plaque, and those few notes by an inspector who four centuries ago went in, looked, and wrote down what needed correcting.
Visiting
The oratory is in via alla Chiesa, a few hundred metres from the parish church of San Michele Arcangelo, at Pieve Ligure, on the eastern riviera; it opens for services and for the confraternity's activities. A quarter of an hour.
Our editors' tip
As you walk through the village, look at the old farm houses and the byres: here it was the custom to put an image of saint Anthony up to protect the beasts. The saint was not only in the oratory, he was on the door of the animal shelter, where he was really needed. The devotion of villages is better measured in places of work than in places of worship.