This country church was born from a wayside shrine. On the land stood a votive tabernacle dedicated to the Madonna; the land belonged to the Rivo family, who owned the silk mill in the village, and the provost of the time was a Rivo too. The rest followed of itself: work began in 1717 and the church was inaugurated in 1720.
What to see
At the start there was only the central body; the side sacristy is a later addition. A pastoral visit of the mid eighteenth century describes it as a country chapel on the public road between Sant'Ambrogio and Avigliana, with a wide, high choir, arches, paintings and a complete floor, and notes that the door opens towards the north-east.
That detail is not a mistake of orientation: country churches face the road, not the rising sun, because they are made for those who pass. The same document records that the building had been remade thanks to the alms of the faithful, that is with the money of the people who stopped there to pray.
Visiting
The church is at Le Brayde, outside the centre of Sant'Ambrogio along the old road to Avigliana; it is a subsidiary church, so it opens mainly for services and for the feast. A quarter of an hour.
Our editors' tip
Walk round the building looking down, where the wall meets the ground: there is a channel dug all around to keep the damp away. They called it the ghindana and it was dug by hand in 1810 by the parishioners, who spent a good many Sundays on it. It is the piece of the church built by the people who used it.