Continuing downhill along Via Roma, we come to the former hospital of Santa Maria della Croce.
It is the oldest of the nine hospitals in the Montalcino territory. From the early thirteenth century it offered wayfarers and pilgrims headed towards Rome a safe shelter where they could rest, treatment for the sick, and a warm Christian welcome. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the hospital was moved to the church of San Francesco. The building now houses the offices of the municipal administration.