Our Lady of Sorrows church, Subsidiary church in Tesero, Italy

Our Lady of Sorrows church is a religious building with white exterior walls and a prominent bell tower set against the mountain landscape of northern Italy. The structure features a straightforward design with a main body and separate campanile, creating a clear silhouette against the surrounding peaks.

The Regola di Tesero built the first small church in 1728 on the site of an old tabernacle where travellers climbing to Pampeago stopped. It was partly demolished and rebuilt with a single nave in 1819, a presbytery was added in 1842, and the bell tower with sacristy followed in 1874. Between 1934 and 1936 a larger hall was added and the tower raised by one cell, turning the axis 90 degrees counterclockwise while the 18th-century structure was kept inside.

The name Palanca comes from the wooden beams (palanche) laid as a bridge after a flood around 1726 in the Stava valley. The church is also linked to the 1985 Stava disaster: on 17 July 1988 Pope John Paul II visited and blessed a glass plaque listing the victims' names.

The church stands on the provincial road climbing from Tesero towards Stava, in the municipality of Tesero. The old road alignment was moved in 1971, so the building now sits beside the current route. A stone marker next to the church recalls a 1727 bear hunt on the Cornacci slopes above.

Beside the church stands a stone marker recalling 1727, when a hunter shot a bear on the Cornacci slopes above and both fell fighting to the ground near the old road, rerouted in 1971. On 17 July 1988 John Paul II came here to bless a large crystal plaque listing the victims of the 19 July 1985 disaster.