Description
The church of Santo Stefano stands in Veronetta, on the bank of the Adige, near Ponte Pietra. It is a largely Romanesque church, but beneath its yellow stone and red brick it keeps traces of fifteen centuries of history.
Outside, the gabled façade alternates yellow tuff and red terracotta. Above the crossing of the roofs rises the octagonal brick tiburio, with sixteen two-light windows on two levels: there is no other like it in Verona.
Look closely at the blocks of the façade and you'll find graffiti in medieval Latin. They are little chronicles carved in stone: a collapsed embankment in 1195, the arrival of Emperor Frederick II, a battle or two.
Inside, the T-shaped plan has three levels: the nave, the raised transept and, below, the crypt, built around the tenth century. The cross vault rests on eight columns of red Verona marble and four of syenite, probably Egyptian.
In the transept, look for the Gothic frescoes by Giacomo da Riva, with a Madonna nursing the Child (1388), and by Martino da Verona, an Annunciation rediscovered in full in 1920. In the presbytery there is a stone episcopal chair, older than the eighth century.
On the side stands the Baroque Chapel of the Innocents, or Varalli chapel, built between 1618 and 1621. Mannerist stuccoes cover the whole interior, and the altarpieces are by Ottino, Bassetti and Turchi. Tradition says it holds the remains of four children from Herod's massacre.
The story begins before the church. The altars dedicated to Isis suggest a Roman temple, and in 1998, while redoing the floor, archaeologists dug down two and a half meters and found the little houses of the Iron Age: Verona's first inhabitants.
The church was born shortly after 415, when the relics of Saint Stephen were found in Jerusalem. Theodoric had it demolished and then rebuilt, between 532 and 540. In 1117 an earthquake damaged it only in part.
Outside, the gabled façade alternates yellow tuff and red terracotta. Above the crossing of the roofs rises the octagonal brick tiburio, with sixteen two-light windows on two levels: there is no other like it in Verona.
Look closely at the blocks of the façade and you'll find graffiti in medieval Latin. They are little chronicles carved in stone: a collapsed embankment in 1195, the arrival of Emperor Frederick II, a battle or two.
Inside, the T-shaped plan has three levels: the nave, the raised transept and, below, the crypt, built around the tenth century. The cross vault rests on eight columns of red Verona marble and four of syenite, probably Egyptian.
In the transept, look for the Gothic frescoes by Giacomo da Riva, with a Madonna nursing the Child (1388), and by Martino da Verona, an Annunciation rediscovered in full in 1920. In the presbytery there is a stone episcopal chair, older than the eighth century.
On the side stands the Baroque Chapel of the Innocents, or Varalli chapel, built between 1618 and 1621. Mannerist stuccoes cover the whole interior, and the altarpieces are by Ottino, Bassetti and Turchi. Tradition says it holds the remains of four children from Herod's massacre.
The story begins before the church. The altars dedicated to Isis suggest a Roman temple, and in 1998, while redoing the floor, archaeologists dug down two and a half meters and found the little houses of the Iron Age: Verona's first inhabitants.
The church was born shortly after 415, when the relics of Saint Stephen were found in Jerusalem. Theodoric had it demolished and then rebuilt, between 532 and 540. In 1117 an earthquake damaged it only in part.