Via Gaggio, 1, 23011 Ardenno SO
Leaving the valley floor, the Cammino mariano continues along lovely stretches of the old trail connecting villages scattered across the mountainside.
Clusters of rural dwellings giving onto picturesque alleys invite you to explore alluring nooks and crannies, an old fountain, or signs of the sacred frescoed on humble walls.
Churches were built as the mountain became populated, it being rather inconvenient to hike down to the parish church of San Lorenzo in Ardenno. In the 17th century, the people of Gaggio already had the idea of building a church, but the time was not yet ripe. It would not be until 1786-89 that the church was constructed, thanks to a generous bequest by Giovanni Scigolini, who had emigrated to Rome. He stipulated that the church be dedicated to Our Lady of Good Counsel of Genazzano, a cult originating in Lazio in the late-15th century and later spreading through Italy, including Valtellina.
And of course, cults bring with them their representative icons. So there is nothing strange about finding an altarpiece dated 1813 in the great chapel, depicting angels transporting the small painting of Our Lady of Good Counsel. The church also contains a planet donated in 1758 by the “Ommeni di Gaggio Benefattori Dimoranti in Roma” [benefactors from Gaggio living in Rome] and precious gold objects: reliquaries and candelabras that are brought out of their cabinets to decorate the altar only on special occasions.
Various ex-votos are carefully conserved in the sacristy, sign of a cult that has never lost vigor.
Unfortunately, such devotion has led to the replacement of the original furnishings: the main altar was reworked c. 1620 together with that of the Sacred Heart, erected by the families of two youths who had been killed by the Spanish Flu; the altar dedicated to Saint John Bosco dates to 1942-43.
Surviving are a praiseworthy Via Crucis from the school of Pietro Ligari, famous painter born in Ardenno in 1686, and a large canvas with the Madonna and Child with Saints above the entrance to the sacristy (1784). Other paintings come from the older church of San Rocco.
The church stands on its own just outside of the main cluster of houses. The trail climbs in the shade of birches and chestnuts, its edges reinforced with boulders sunk into the earth.
