Discover Propositura di Santa Croce, Greve in Chianti

The propositura di Santa Croce is the principal Catholic place of worship of Greve in Chianti, in the Metropolitan City of Florence and the diocese of Fiesole. It stands at the culmination of Greve's main square, occupying one vertex of the triangle.

On the site of a small chapel whose construction was authorised by the bishop of Fiesole Fuligno Carboni, the prepositura was rebuilt in neo-Renaissance forms between 1833 and 1835, to a design by Luigi de Cambray-Digny that reflects the taste of the classicism of the Restoration.

It is a building of three naves with a coffered ceiling, concluded by a semicircular apse. Inside, the forms are inspired by Florentine Renaissance architecture, on a Latin cross plan with the hall divided into three naves by pillars.

Its interest is less the architecture than the collection: works brought here from churches across the comune, and one taken from the square immediately outside.

The building is neo-Renaissance outside and Florentine Renaissance in inspiration inside, and both are deliberate quotation rather than survival — it was built in the 1830s.

The facade is neoclassical: a three-arched portico, a cornice decorated with garlands serving as the base of the tympanum, a rose window in the tympanum, and two flanking niches with San Francesco and San Giovanni Battista.

The plan is a Latin cross, the hall divided into three naves by pillars, with a coffered ceiling and a semicircular apse.

Luigi de Cambray-Digny designed it in the taste of the classicism of the Restoration — a style that looks back past the Napoleonic years to the Florentine Quattrocento, which is precisely what a Restoration client would want.

The one asymmetry is the tower, raised by a cell in 1913 and therefore taller than Cambray-Digny intended.

The sequence is short, because the present building is one campaign.

A small chapel came first, authorised by the bishop of Fiesole Fuligno Carboni.

Then the rebuilding of 1833–1835, which replaced rather than extended it, to Luigi de Cambray-Digny's neo-Renaissance design.

Then 1913, when the tower gained a cell and four Terzo Rafanelli bells.

And then, continuously, the furnishing from elsewhere. This is the part that matters. The fresco came in from the square, the triptych from Convertoie, the Crucifix from Montefioralle. A church finished in 1835 holds a 14th-century tabernacle and an early-15th-century Spanish Crucifix because the parish consolidated what the comune's smaller churches could no longer keep.

Is this the famous Santa Croce? No. Florence's basilica is a different building; this is the parish church of Greve in Chianti, in the diocese of Fiesole.

How old is it? The present church was rebuilt between 1833 and 1835 by Luigi de Cambray-Digny, on the site of a small chapel authorised by the bishop of Fiesole Fuligno Carboni.

Why is the art older than the building? Because most of it was brought in. The fresco came from a tabernacle under the square's loggias, the triptych from San Silvestro a Convertoie, and the Crucifix from the pieve di San Cresci a Montefioralle.

Who carved the Crucifix? An anonymous Spanish sculptor of the early 15th century, by attribution. Sources that call it Trecento are following the town article rather than the one on this church.

What is on the facade? A three-arched portico, a garlanded cornice, a rose window in the tympanum, and niches with San Francesco and San Giovanni Battista.

How many bells? Four, by the Pistoiese Terzo Rafanelli, in the cell added in 1913, with a sonello below.

Is there an admission charge? None is published. It is a working parish church.