This small Renaissance church still exists thanks to a mayor who was also a historian. At the start of the twentieth century the convent it belonged to was bought by the council and pulled down to open a new square; he opposed the destruction of this piece too, and the church was left standing alone, wedged between the buildings of via dei Montanini.
What to see
It was built between 1471 and 1477 by a bishop for his own family, and the white marble front, elegant and plain, is attributed to Francesco di Giorgio Martini. Inside there is a single nave, because when the patron died the money ran out and the interior was never finished as planned.
On the altar is the panel that makes the detour worthwhile: the Madonna of the Snows by Matteo di Giovanni, which tells of the miracle of snow falling in Rome in August to show where a church should be built. At the bottom two men are gathering up snowballs, and that detail, in a fifteenth-century sacred scene, has a naturalness that takes you by surprise.
Visiting
The church is in via dei Montanini, on the street that runs from the Campo towards porta Camollia, five minutes from piazza Salimbeni; it is small and not always open: it is visited during events or by asking for information in town. A quarter of an hour.
Our editors' tip
If you find it closed, stay a minute in front of the façade anyway: it is a tall, narrow box of white marble squeezed between two buildings, and you see at once that it was the front of something larger. Then look at the square beside it and try to imagine the convent that stood where the flower beds are.