Church of Holy Trinity (Chiesa della Santissima Trinità)

Highlights

Church built in the early 19th century.

It is characterized by its round-shaped base.

It stands on the eastern edge of the village and dominates the striking “Rialto” basin.

Round in shape, it was built by the Community in 1820 on the site of a precedent one, which was built in the second half of 1500.

About a century after its construction, the church presented “several cracks, was without a door and threatened ruin” so the Community proceeded in its total reconstruction in 1698.

Ten years later, no one knows why, the new chapel was nevertheless still to be blessed, so that Bishop Morozzo wrote in 1709: “This chapel, not yet blessed, almost always open, is almost useless”. After the severe remarks of the Bishop the small temple was blessed and provided with a new icon representing the Holy Trinity and Saints James and Constantius.

The canvas also depicted the coat of arms of the municipality to which the church belonged. At the end of the 1800s the chapel was “cracked at different points” so it was ordered to be “visited by experts and repaired”.

Having made the appropriate observations, it was found impossible to proceed with a suitable repair of the building, as a result of which the Municipality ordered that it be demolished and in the spring of 1820 decided to raise a new chapel (the current one) on the same area.

The church - of modest proportions - is kept with care. The interior is decorated with sober propriety. Icon is a painting depicting the Mystery of the Holy Trinity.

Every year its feast is celebrated with solemnity. On the evening of the eve, after the functions of the parish church, the Valfeneresi love to gather around the characteristic chapel. And while the band plays a concert, the traditional bonfire is fired with rocket launches. On the feast day it was customary to hold a special lottery that greatly affected our old men.

The objects at stake were only two and always the same: a man's hat and a woman's handkerchief. The extraction took place after the vespers on the square adjacent to the church.

There were as many tickets as there were participants, which were recorded in a special register. In another bag, white fava beans were placed and alone among them, a black fava. A ticket and a bean would be drawn. If the fava was white, the ticket was torn up and the fava was put back into the bag. Another drawing would then follow. The winner was the one whose name was matched in the drawing with the black fava.