The supermarket chain Lidl has been accused of airbrushing out crosses from a historic church in Italy so as not to offend its non-Christian customers.

The case follows a similar controversy last month involving packaging for a range of Greek food in which the crosses on top of a blue-domed church on the Greek island of Santorini were removed by the German-owned chain.

The latest row involves the Church of Sant’Antonio Abate in the picturesque village of Dolceacqua in the northwestern region of Liguria.

The village, which boasts an ancient stone bridge and a medieval castle, was painted by the French artist Claude Monet in the 1880s.