Chiesa della Madonna del Soccorso

Trepalle’s Madonna del Soccorso church recalls a community vow made during the epidemic of 1847. Its present form also reflects later rebuilding.

Why it matters

The church was rebuilt in 1959 and restored in 1979. It stands where the Vallaccia meets the valley below the Foscagno pass.

What to notice

The single nave contains a wooden altarpiece above the altar: in its niches stands a carved wooden statue of the Madonna with Child, made by the Ortisei workshops of the Gardena valley and placed here in 1951. Between apse and nave hangs a large crucifix of uncertain origin. Outside, the graceful bell tower ends in a bulb, the silhouette shared by most of Livigno's churches.

Context and history

The community vow dates to the epidemic remembered at Trepalle in 1847. The first stone was laid on 5 June 1858 and the completed church was blessed on 29 May 1860. It was rebuilt in 1959 under the parish priest Don Parenti, the pastor whose name Trepalle's main square still carries, and restored in 1979 under Don Adriano Ponti. The chapel belonged to the parish of Sant’Anna in Trepalle by Bishop Andrea Ferrari’s visitation of 1892.