The name of this sanctuary is a map. Our Lady of the Guardia is the Marian devotion of the Genoese, born on the mountain above Genoa and spread wherever the Republic's influence reached: to find it here, in the province of Alessandria, tells you that for centuries Ovada looked to the sea and not to Turin.
What to see
The building was raised in 1661 with the money of a Genoese noble, Francesco Serra. It later passed to the Berchi, and in the mid eighteenth century a notary of that family paid for its restoration, having the choir built and the altar installed. In the mid nineteenth century it was restructured again to the design of a local engineer.
In the nineteen-nineties work on the exterior removed the modern plaster and brought the original stone back into view. The sanctuary is protected by the heritage authority and is in the culture ministry's catalogue. The feast is on the twenty-ninth of August, and in the preceding week the village organises talks, shows and the procession.
Visiting
The sanctuary is in the hamlet of Grillano Guardia, about four kilometres from the centre of Ovada; it opens for services and on the feast days, so it is worth checking the hours. Half an hour.
Our editors' tip
Touch the outside wall and remember that the builders did not want you to see it. Bare stone is a choice of ours, a modern one: in the seventeenth century a finished building was a plastered building, and leaving the masonry naked meant you had run out of money. Restoring is always also deciding which age to side with.