Beside the church still in use stands another one, roofless: the perimeter walls almost complete, a Latin-cross plan, tiny dimensions. In the small basin of the apse you can still make out traces of painting, a Christ surrounded by a starry sky. This is the original Santa Maria Maddalena of Ellera, a hamlet of Albisola Superiore, on a rock above the valley of the Sansobbia stream. The place is known as “dell'Eremita”, the hermit's: an old local saying recalls a well that once stood nearby, and legend credits the foundation of the church to a hermit, the same man said to have brought olive growing to this valley for the first time.
What to see
The building in use today dates from 1590 and stands next to the ruin rather than on top of it: a single nave under a barrel vault, and a bell tower roofed with ceramic tiles, a material that is never a neutral detail in Albisola. The 1965 refurbishment put the whole complex back in order; inside is a wooden statue of Saint Mary Magdalene.
The older building is thought to have been founded by the monks of the abbey of San Salvatore di Giusvalla. In the tenth century the site appears among the possessions of the abbey of San Quintino di Spigno Monferrato, in the Alessandria area, founded after Giusvalla was destroyed; some studies date the first church to the second half of the tenth century as well, while the oldest documentary mention is a deed of 1179. The two buildings side by side thus account for close to a thousand years of use of the same rocky spur.
Visiting
Ellera is reached by following the Sansobbia valley up from Albisola Superiore; the church stands in via della Maddalena, outside the built-up area, and parking amounts to whatever the roadside offers. The ruin can be seen from outside and at close range, while for the interior of the sixteenth-century church it is best to aim for service times or ask the parish. Half an hour is enough, unless you stop to look at the valley.
Our editors' tip
We suggest late afternoon: the light rakes into the open apse and the traces of the starry sky read far better than at midday. Then take a short walk along the olive terraces below the church: if the hermit's story has any truth in it, this is where the tree spread into the valley from.