Porch: The porch is characterized by two slender columns topped by an abacus, which supports the architrave and pediment and has no decorations. The roof is gabled and consists of wooden trusses and roof tiles. The floor is concrete and the porch is bordered on the two sides (between the entrance and columns), by a low stone wall and brick walls.
Facade: the entrance is rectangular, with a wooden door with two doors. The apse, on the outside, does not have any opening. The oratory has two small rectangular windows (one per side).
Interior: The apse area is characterized by a small niche. This building dates back to the fifteenth century. The building is located at an altitude of 489 meters, from the hamlet, halfway between Livelli & Casa Massone.
It's surrounded by cultivated fields and can be reached by following a path used by agricultural vehicles.
PLANT
Rectangular, preceded by a porch, a semicircular apse.
COVER
The porch and the core cover is made of brick tiles, the apse has layers of sheet metal.
VAULTS OR CEILINGS
Nave: plain ceiling.
Apse: semicircular vault.
MASONRY TECHNIQUES
External face: the lack of plaster in several places exudes a wall texture in stone and mortar used as a binder. Internal facing: painted plaster.
FLOORS
The floor of the porch is concrete, and the interior flooring is made up of tiles. Over time, the building has undergone some transformations: the more evident intervention is the little porch in front of the chapel itself.
The small chapel is mentioned already in 1569 on the occasion of the pastoral visit to the Church of Bagnaria, then submitted to the Parish of St. Ponzo, of Monsignor Gambara, Bishop of Tortona. Saint Rocco came from France to Italy, where he died of the plague, in 1327, at the age of 32 years, after taking care of plague victims. In the fifteenth century he was invoked as a protector against the plague and is one of the more popular Saints in present culture. The building may have been built in honor of the saint around the year 1420, when the plague struck with particular virulence in the Staffora valley. In the mountain areas, the epidemic had reached such a scale that Voghera, in 1421, had health officials at the gates of the city with the task of preventing by force the entrance to the people from the Staffora valley .
Source: Thesaurus montanus. I Beni Architettonici e Artistici della Comunità Montana Oltrepo Pavese, volume e CD rom, ed. Torchio de’ Ricci, Certosa di Pavia, 2003
