Church of St. Savior

Located in the lower part of the maggengo of the same name, in the Livrio valley, the church of S. Salvatore is now used for a few services during the summer period.

Very interesting, however, is its history: believed to be the oldest in the entire Valtellina, tradition has it that it was erected by early Christians and dates back to the beginning of the sixth century. The historian Quadrio in his Dissertations (1755) speaks of the Valle de' Liri and reports that up there "once when Albosaggia was not yet an inhabited village, numerous families also flourished from other places in the Valtellina, part of which now belong to the Bergamasque: where the domain of the Capitanei extended was the church of S. Salvatore." Indeed, the Livrio valley in ancient times served as a link between the Adda valley and the Valbrembana, and this justifies the presence of settlements in these areas. When Quadrio wrote, the church appeared already restored and partly rebuilt, but of its foundation there was no record; however, the same historian reports the presence of a plaque written in Gothic characters with the year 537 carved on it (a plaque that has now disappeared but other historical sources confirm that it was still there in 1873).

It is also interesting to discover that documents from the early seventeenth century tell us that the church of S. Salvatore was comparrocchiale. Quadrio about the church says "ch'era già parrocchia comune allora di varie terre, e del Bergamasco, e della Valtellina": according to the historian S. Caterina, built only in 1354, became a second parish. As proof of the importance held at that time by S. Salvatore, in the parish records from the 15th century until the 17th century all those elected to the cure of Albosaggia are remembered as curates of S. Caterina and S. Salvatore.

Stylistically, the church can be considered baroque; it underwent rehashes, restorations and additions at various times with different stylistic interventions, so that nothing remains of the medieval structure. Only the bell tower, at least in some sections, may belong to the original structure of the ancient church.

Source: Parish of Albosaggia