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Basilica of Santo Stefano

Basilica of Santo Stefano

Photo: MenkinAlRire · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Bologna, Italy
Client / Owner
—
Year
Completed 1000
Access
Tickets required
Typology
Spiritual

The Basilica of Santo Stefano in Bologna is nicknamed Sette Chiese, or Seven Churches, for its complex of linked buildings. Tradition holds that Saint Petronius, a fifth-century bishop, built it over a temple of Isis, modeled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The Holy Sepulchre church was rebuilt in the early eleventh century by Benedictine monks after Hungarian invasions of the tenth century.

The Holy Sepulchre has a central plan with an irregular octagonal perimeter and a dodecagonal dome. The Church of Saints Vitale and Agricola dates to the fourth century and was rebuilt in the twelfth. Pilate's Courtyard is bordered by Romanesque porticoes with brick columns.

The Adoration of the Magi group, attributed to the Master of the Crucifix 1291, is described as the oldest known crib of statues in the round. The complex is a minor basilica with a museum.

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