The finest work of art from this church is no longer here. The fifteenth-century triptych showing Saint Lawrence between Saints Anthony Abbot and Bernard, painted by the anonymous hand that art historians call the Master of the Cinque Terre, once stood on the altar at Volastra and is now kept in the parish church of Manarola, on which this sanctuary depends. What remains is the building itself, raised in the twelfth century at the top of the village in Romanesque forms later corrected with Gothic insertions, and the image of the Virgin venerated inside, crowned in 1891.
What to see
The gabled front is built of local stone blocks and closed at the top by a crown of small arches. The sandstone portal has a pointed arch and carries a Gothic mullioned window above it; in the lunette a marble relief shows the crowned Madonna. Along the flanks there are only narrow single-light windows, just enough to bring light in without weakening the wall.
Inside, the simplicity is almost rural: a single rectangular nave under a barrel vault, and a narrow apse with a Gothic arch housing a Baroque altar, the one genuinely decorated element. The sanctuary belongs to the group of Marian sanctuaries of the Cinque Terre, together with Nostra Signora di Montenero above Riomaggiore, Nostra Signora delle Grazie and Nostra Signora di Reggio in the territory of Vernazza, and Nostra Signora di Soviore above Monterosso al Mare.
Visiting
The church stands at the highest point of Volastra, a hillside hamlet of Riomaggiore: whichever way you come, the last stretch climbs, and the building appears suddenly beyond the houses. It is a parish seat in the Riviera vicariate of the diocese of La Spezia-Sarzana-Brugnato and answers to the parish church of San Lorenzo in Manarola; opening times follow the services, which remain the most reliable moment to find the doors open. The interior takes only a few minutes to walk, but it is worth pausing under the barrel vault to gauge how little the medieval plan has changed.
Our editors' tip
We suggest planning the church of San Lorenzo in Manarola into the same day, further down the slope: that is where the triptych from this altar ended up, and seeing both churches together puts back in order a heritage that was split apart. If you can choose the hour, aim for late afternoon: the stone of the facade turns warm and the crown of small arches reads far better in raking light.