The bell tower of this church took nineteen years to go up. Work began in 1754 to the design of Filippo Marvaldi, of that family of architects who in the eighteenth century built half the churches of the western riviera, and ended almost two decades later. It was not the architects being slow: it was the pace at which a parish collected the money.
What to see
The church is of the seventeenth century and stands in the settlement of Pairola, on the heights behind the coast. The doorway is of carved slate, with the Madonna and Child: the black stone of the Ligurian quarries, worked as it has been worked here for centuries.
Inside is a fresco of the Madonna of the Snow attributed to Tommaso Carrega, a painter from Porto Maurizio, and a statue in polychrome wood of the same subject. Of the latter one precise thing is known: it was bought in 1770. Not commissioned, bought.
Visiting
The church is in piazza della Chiesa, in the hamlet of Pairola, municipality of San Bartolomeo al Mare, just behind Diano Marina; it is a parish church and opens for services. Twenty minutes.
Our editors' tip
Look at the statue knowing it was not born to stand here. Sculpture workshops kept finished works in stock, and parishes chose among them, the way you choose a piece of furniture: the right subject, the right size, an affordable price. It is an unromantic way of imagining sacred art, and it is what happened most of the time.