Adjacent to the religious building, there is an ancient tree named The Old Linden (Italian: Vecchio Tiglio), which is approximately 700 years old.

During the renovation work, the local population decided to add an altar dedicated to Saint Theodore as a vow to remain safe from the increasing natural disasters.

This building was a "carnerium", namely a combination of a charnel house and a chapel, dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel since he was believed to protect dying souls.

[2] The presbytery and the main body of the church were not restored since they remained covered in wood to protect the members of the religious community from the cold temperatures of the winter months.

The ceiling of the church also remained made of wooden planks, which were later decorated with portrayals of flowers and animals signed by "Meister Peter Mory von Fryburg", a Swiss artist from Zürich who at the time was living in Macugnaga.

On 17 June 1523, an auxiliary bishop came to Macugnaga to perform this task and grant indulgences to all those that made offerings during specific religious festivals.

[8] To commemorate the date of the consecration, an inscription in Latin was carved under the window located next to the altar, which states: Dies anniversaria huius Ecclesiae agitur dominica prima Maii ("The anniversary day of the church has to be celebrated the first Sunday of May").

[11] On 19 September 1640, a flood hit Macugnaga and the local Tambach stream burst its banks, covering in mud both the Old Church and the cemetery, which were permanently damaged.

[7] The altarpiece located above the altar in a niche represents the Virgin Mary on a throne surrounded by a drape held by angels.

These relics (among them those of the Saints Antonino, Eusebio, Olimpio, Aurelio, Vittoria, Salvatore, and Innocenza) were kept in special deposits built in local soapstone, placed next to the altar.

The balustrade, which is built of the same local stone, separates the presbytery from the body of the church, which is not aligned with the presbytery, since it widens considerably to the north, giving space to an altar dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua (with a wooden altarpiece placed in 1657) and two rooms with an altar dedicated to the Madonna del Rosario and to Saint Catherine Martyr (now occupied by a grotto of Lourdes built in 1910).

Finally, there is the floor, built of large stones, and the few remaining specimens of larch benches, noted for the inscriptions and dates engraved on them.

[2] In the Christian tradition, the suffrage of the dead led to the custom of burying the deceased near the church in a special place, called a camposanto, or cemetery.

It was initially placed around a local chapel, but with the construction of the Old Church, the cemetery was moved to the area around it, and was fenced-in to protect it from wandering beasts.

The carnerium was where the deceased were deposited during the long and cold winter periods, since graves could not be dug in the frozen, snow-covered ground.

[2] The cemetery was affected by the same vicissitudes of the Old Church: the flood of 1640, caused by the overflowing of the nearby Tambach,[12] covered it with stones and gravel and completely devastated it.

[2] In 1749, a new ossuary was built behind the church, where a singular inscription can still be read today in which the dead recall the need to be remembered in prayer, complaining about the forgetfulness in which they are left: “Stop, o passenger, look at the torments /We are abandoned by our greedy relatives /Have pity on us, dear friends".

[13] A marble plaque, placed on the western wall of the porch, commemorates all those important personalities who are considered to be "interpreters of the sublime heights of the alp”, who loved Macugnaga and spread its name throughout the world.

[2] A number of climbers (both Italian and foreign), painters, scholars, and writers are buried or commemorated in the Old Church cemetery in Macugnaga.

According to a legend reported by the scholar Albert Schott in his book The German colonies in Piedmont, this linden tree was planted thanks to a seed brought from the Valais region in the second half of the 13th century by a woman who was part of the Walser founders of the village.

In reality, an age of 200 years is historically inadequate, given that in 1825 the linden appears in a painting by the English painter William Brockedon.

Their main features, such as the strict relationship between the real and spiritual world and the supernatural elements, are common to Germanic culture.

[11] According to this legend, when the Tambach overflowed in 1640, inundating the entire plain surrounding the Dorf, two witches named Bregnala and Strechala worked hard to bury the whole church under the landslide.

To resolve the matter fairly, a monk named Lorenzo organized a procession in which he participated blindfolded and carried a cross in his hand that he was going to plant in the place approved by God for the construction of the new parish church.