This is the San Lorenzo in Ponte church. It looks humble from the outside, with just a small facade and a little covered porch. But it carries one of the most quietly moving things in town, and it hides in plain sight. First, the name. In Ponte means at the bridge. There is no bridge now, but there used to be a drawbridge here, leading across from a castle that belonged to a powerful bishop, down toward the square we just left. The bridge is long gone. The bishop's old castle, though, survived and went on to lead a strange second life, first as a monastery, later even as a prison. Now, the treasure. Under the little porch outside, there was for centuries a much-loved painting of Madonna and Child. Over the years, most of it was repainted and touched up. But the Madonna's face was left alone, and that face is believed to be the early work of one of the great masters of Sienese painting, Simone Martini, done when he was still young and finding his gift. People fell so deeply in love with that face that they enlarged the porch into a proper oratory just to shelter it. And then they covered the inside with something extraordinary, a whole painted vision of the afterlife, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, with Saint Lawrence, the patron saint himself, lifting souls out of their suffering. Now, in medieval Christian art, souls in Purgatory are normally shown being rescued through the intercession of Christ or the Virgin. Here, Saint Lawrence himself is shown performing the act of redemption. According to a legend, he was believed to have the special power to free one soul from Purgatory every Friday. In the fresco, you’ll notice that he is accompanied by Saint Gregory the Great, who is also shown helping to redeem a soul. Beside him is a crowned figure, traditionally identified by scholars as the Roman Emperor Trajan. These frescoes are inside the church, and if you wish to look at them, you’ll have to pay an entry fee. If you don’t or can’t go in, swipe through the photos tab to see how they look. Now, follow the map to the square where the church and the government stood face to face.