The first certain mention of this church is dated 10 January 1250: a document transferring the parish from the curia of Tortona to the archdiocese of Genoa and attaching it to the pieve of Ceta, that is the pieve of Santa Maria Assunta at Borgo Fornari. The building you see today is later. Work was finished in 1641, on the left bank of the Scrivia where the old parish church had stood, and the blessing was given by the priest Gio. Andrea Chioino, as recorded in a Genoese archiepiscopal document of 4 January 1641. Raised to a provostry on 21 February 1823 by cardinal Luigi Lambruschini and made a vicariate forane on 16 January 1843, it was solemnly consecrated only on 16 September 1849 by monsignor Alerame Pallavicino.
What to see
The Renaissance-Baroque look is the result of a long series of alterations. The choir was rebuilt from scratch in 1706; the façade was reworked in 1795 and the sacristy in 1797. Between April 1899 and December 1903 the façade changed again, and that is when the fresco of Saint Martin appeared, the bishop of Tours to whom the church is dedicated: it is the first thing you notice from the square.
Inside, the high altar is in polychrome marble and was carved before 1760, while the stuccoes carry the date 1923. The second chapel on the right holds a canvas of Saints Philip Neri, Ignatius and Francis Xavier by Giovanni Lorenzo Bertolotto, and in the apse there is a painting of Saints Roch and Anthony by Orazio De Ferrari, one of the sturdiest Genoese painters of the seventeenth century.
Visiting
The church faces piazza della Vittoria, in the centre of Ronco Scrivia, a few minutes on foot from the railway station. It is the parish church of the Valle Scrivia vicariate, archdiocese of Genoa, and it follows the times of services: outside Mass, access depends on whoever is keeping it open, and it is best to ask at the sacristy.
Our editors' tip
Look at the façade from the square first, hunting for the fresco of Saint Martin, and only then go in: it makes it easier to see how much retouching has piled up on the same shell of walls. Inside we head straight for the apse and the De Ferrari, and leave the second chapel on the right for last. If you turn up on a Sunday morning, wait for Mass to end: this is first of all a working parish.