St. Stephen’s Basilica in Bologna is also known as the Seven Churches complex.
According to tradition, it was designed by St. Petronius with the intention of imitating the famous site of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
Built on the ruins of a temple dedicated to the goddess Isis, an Egyptian deity who represented motherhood and fertility.
The complex of St. Stephen’s Basilica suffered serious devastation during the invasion of the Hungarians, which took place at the beginning of the tenth century, and was therefore rebuilt by the Benedictines at the beginning of the 1200s.
The basilica was subsequently subjected to further restoration around 1880 and in the first decades of the 20th century, at the end of which several elements were removed, but irreparably changing the original appearance of the complex.
Despite the devastation, numerous restorations and various historical alterations, St. Stephen’s Basilica remains the most eminent Romanesque monument in the city.
In the Church of the Crucifix there is the crypt, where the relics of Saints Vitale and Agricola have been kept since the eleventh century.
Inside the Museum of Santo Stefano there are rare sacred objects such as the ivory crosier that belonged to Sant’Isidore, a fragment of the Holy Cross and the Holy Bandage, according to the tradition used by the Madonna to tie her hair as a sign of mourning.
It is important to remember that St. Stephen’s Basilica was enriched with relics and precious treasures also thanks to the crusaders who returned from the Holy Land.
