The church of Santa Margherita was raised in the fifteenth century at a place called «delle Furche», of the gallows: it was where death sentences were carried out. It stands along the mule track that leads to the Arroscia waterfalls and to Borghetto di Mendatica, a settlement that has since disappeared.
What to see
The doorway is carved and bears the date 1512: it was made by the master stonecutters of Cenova, the same who at Montegrosso Pian Latte signed the lintel of 1435. Inside are sixteenth-century frescoes of the life and Passion of Christ, attributed with good probability to the painter Pietro Guido da Ranzo; the cycles were restored recently by the Istituto delle Belle Arti of Genoa.
Visiting
You reach it on foot from the village along the mule track, the same one that carries on towards the waterfalls: it is worth putting the two together in a single walk. The church stands isolated, outside the built-up area, and the name of the place explains by itself why nobody lived around it.
Our editors' tip
Look at the doorway before going in: the date of 1512 and the hand of the Cenova stonecutters are the main reason the walk is worth it, even more than the frescoes.