‘When the church door opens, it’s like a miracle’: the phone app that’s a key to Italy’s religious art

A cultural initiative in Piedmont is unlocking a trove of priceless medieval frescoes in rural churchesThe Santa Maria di Missione chapel in Villafranca Piemonte, northern Italy, stands at the end of a long cornfield. Behind it, the mountains rise gently, their outlines caressed by the sun. The colours of autumn frame the 15th-century frescoes that embellish the structure’s interior, painted by Italian artist Aimone Duce, of the Lombard school. The chapel is the municipality’s o