Propositura di Santa Croce, Greve in Chianti

Because this plain church at the end of the square is where the comune's displaced art ended up.

Almost nothing inside was made for it. The 14th-century Madonna col Bambino fresco, attributed to the Maestro di Greve, was taken from a tabernacle under the loggias of the square outside. The Bicci di Lorenzo triptych came from San Silvestro a Convertoie. The wooden Crucifix — attributed to an anonymous Spanish sculptor of the early 15th century — came from the pieve di San Cresci a Montefioralle.

The friction is that the building itself is young: rebuilt between 1833 and 1835, so the shell is two centuries old and the contents are six.

The smart way is to go in after you have stood in the square. The fresco means something different once you know it used to hang out there, where the market was.

This is a parish church in use, not a gallery. No ticket means the usual compact is the price of entry: quiet, covered shoulders, nothing during a service.

The works here are refugees. A 14th-century fresco taken off a loggia, a triptych from a country church, a Spanish Crucifix from a Romanesque pieve. Displaced works are fragile by definition — no flash.

Leave something. A church with free entry holding a Bicci di Lorenzo and a Buglioni is maintained by a parish, not a museum budget.

The square outside is the town's living room. The church is one side of a working mercatale.

Where. At the culmination of Piazza Matteotti, Greve in Chianti — one vertex of the triangular square.

Admission and hours. It is the working parish church of Greve, in the diocese of Fiesole. No visiting hours and no admission charge are published for it.

Getting in. As the principal church of a town of 13,321 people on the main square, it keeps longer and more regular hours than a village parish church. Around a service is always reliable.

How long. Twenty minutes. Work the chapels in order: the tabernacle fresco on the right wall, the Bicci di Lorenzo right of the high altar, the Crucifix in the main chapel, the Buglioni ciborium to the left.

Who to ask. The Comune di Greve in Chianti, Piazza Giacomo Matteotti 7/8, switchboard 055 85451; it publishes no hours for the church.

Combine it with the square it stands on and the Museo di San Francesco, which holds a 14th-century Annunciation that came from this church.

No visiting hours are published, so the question is circumstance. Around a service is the dependable answer, and a town church of this size is open more often than a village one.

3 May and 14 September are the feasts of the Holy Cross, the church's dedication.

Market day fills the square outside — which is the right context for a fresco that used to hang under the square's loggias, if you can time it.

Autumn is the Chianti's busiest season, but the pressure in Greve is on parking rather than on the church.

Winter is cold inside a large unheated church, and the Chianti valleys can fall several degrees below zero.