PIAZZA SANTO STEFANO

If you walk down Via Santo Stefano, you'll get to the square of the same name lined with porticoes.

There are seven churches here all built on the site of an old pagan temple dedicated to the goddess Isis, which make up the Olivetan Benidictine Monastery.

The different buildings stand for the sites of Passion of Christ.

These buildings were made in the 11th and 13th centuries recycling old materials, partly Roman and Byzantine.



Besides the Chiesa del Santissimo Crocefisso, with its 1019 crypt and inscription dedicated to the Roman goddess Isis, there is the Chiesa del Calvario, centrally planned, containing a 13th-century copy of the Holy Sepulchre where the relics of Saint Petronius, patron of Bologna.

The other important buildings are: the Chiesa dei Santi Vitale e Agricola, planned like a basilica, which contains two engraved sarcophagi with the reliquies of two 4th century
martyrs from Bologna and the Chiesa della Trinità (13th century). Inside there is also the Cortile di Pilato (13th century)
and the Cloister with its loggia on two floors, a typical feature of Romanesque art in Emilia.