The one visible today is not the first parish church of Riva Faraldi. The first place of worship, founded in 1572 and dedicated to San Salvatore, had three naves and played a central role in peasant life: it housed seven altars and works of art, including an altarpiece with Christ commissioned from the De Rossi, known as Pancalino, now lost.

From the ancient structure, two reddish columns remain in the square and an internal tomb. Until the Nineteenth century, the deceased were buried in the church, a practice that ceased with the Napoleonic laws that mandated cemeteries outside populated areas.

In the mid-Nineteenth century, the building was profoundly transformed: it went from three naves to one, and the altars were reduced to five, those of Our Lady of the Rosary, the Guardian Angel already present in San Salvatore, St. Louis, the Transfiguration, and the major one. In 1854, the church was dedicated to the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Inside are preserved valuable works, including the Madonna with Baby Jesus from 1633, the wooden statue of the Guardian Angel from 1670–1680, and a painting with St. Lucia, St. Stephen, and St. Lawrence. The most significant work is the Transfiguration, a wooden group with Christ, Moses, Elijah, and the apostles Peter, James, and John, attributed, although not unanimously, to the sculptor Garaventa, active between the end of the Eighteenth century and the beginning of the Nineteenth century.