In the hamlet of Valmoresca in the municipality of Averara, in Val Mora, on the Acqua Nera stream, along the ancient via Mercatorum towards the San Marco Pass, there was an oratory since ancient times, which was completely rebuilt in 1685 with the contribution of the entire population and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin of the Snow, whose feast is celebrated on August 5.
The well-proportioned and slender sacred building has a simple hall, with a presbytery raised by one step and distinguished by a high triumphal arch. On the façade the portal and two side windows at eye level, joined by entablature in green beola, like the jambs, is a solution and apparatus common to many Vallari oratories of the time. The bell tower, made of dressed stone, gives a sense of balance with the broken out of the mirrors and recalls the type of bell towers of the time, such as that of the parish church.
Inside, at the altar, the altarpiece by an anonymous 17th-century author is beautiful, as is the painting of the Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple, which is very interesting and can be attributed to the local painter Francesco Bianchi, son of M. Aurelio Bianchi, from a family of artists, carvers, inlayers and painters from Lugano who came to reside precisely in the Averara Valley. Also to be referred to local painters of the 1700s is the painting of St. Gaetano, depicted praying with the lily symbol in the foreground.
The Oratory of the B.V. della Neve invites rest and peace along the transhumance path that so many of our people made for centuries from the upper Valley to the Lombardy plain.
