CHURCH OF SANTO STEFANO

DESCRIPTION

The façade of the church of Santo Stefano is characterized by two superimposed orders of symmetrical pairs of pilasters of the Tuscan order, which frame the simple portal in the center surmounted by a small tympanum and a large oculus.

Going up two steps, you enter the church through a small compass. The interior, characterized by a single hall, has a trussed roof that was rebuilt following the bombing suffered during the Second World War. Pilasters of the Tuscan order are symmetrically arranged along the walls to support the cornice that runs along the entire perimeter of the church. Above the cornice we find on the right wall some real windows that allow sunlight to enter, arranged symmetrically and parallel to each real window, a false window on the left side. Along all the walls, we find placed on small green marble pedestals, 14 panels that belong to the Via Crucis, a bronze work created in 1965 by Dante Ruffini and donated to the church by the spouses Giulia and Dario Cordeschi. The first of these 14 stations of the Via Crucis is located to the left of the triumphal arch of the apse area. The others follow counterclockwise, until the fourteenth is found exactly on the right side of the same triumphal arch in the apse area. As soon as you enter the church on the right side, at the eighth station of the Via Crucis, there is a white marble stoup with a quadrangular cup supported by a support with a quadrilobate section. Followed by twelve canvases made by Domenico Creti in 1986, depicting the salient moments in the life of Jesus before and after his death, divided into groups of four, decorate the right wall, alternating with the stations of the Via Crucis. To the right of the triumphal arch there is a terracotta work by Dante Ruffini representing the image of Saint Lucia Filippini. A large fresco of about 35 square meters occupies the back wall of the presbytery with the depiction of the Martyrdom of Saint Stephen, made by Cesare Bertuzzi in 1961. Behind the main altar is a fifteenth-century fresco depicting a Crucifixion. On the sides of the tabernacle, 5 on each side, there are ten terracotta panels, depicting the salient moments in the life of Jesus.

On the left wall, to follow counterclockwise, we find a canvas by Domenico Creti made in 1984 with the Holy Family, a modern glazed ceramic with the representation of the Good Shepherd, and finally a seventeenth century canvas with the representation of San Biagio.