Nothing certain is known about a first church at Propata. Tradition points to the oratory of San Rocco, up on a hill, as the oldest place of worship; later another was built at the place called Sagrà, which a landslip forced them to abandon and pull down. Today's parish church grew out of an oratory dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, expanding as the population did.
What to see
There are four side altars, dedicated to San Rocco, to the Madonna del Rosario, to Saint Anthony Abbot and to Saint John the Baptist. The wooden statues speak of different periods: Saint Lawrence and Saint John the Baptist are from 1675, the Madonna del Rosario from 1814, Our Lady of Lourdes from 1905. The church also holds a wooden statue by Anton Maria Maragliano.
Visiting
That the church already existed in the fourteenth century is worked out indirectly: an appeal of 1660, kept in the parish archive, states that its land was given by the marquises Porri, lords of Propata and later vassals of the Visconti in 1371. The bishop of Tortona Maffeo Gambara visited on 16 September 1596, when the parish covered Propata, Bavastrelli, Caprile and the scattered Casoni. The present shape came shortly after: the choir and the apse were built in 1696, and since 1884 the bells have numbered five.
Our editors' tip
If what interests you is the real history of the place, the parish archive counts for more than the furnishings: it is from there that the little we know of this church's origin comes.