At first glance, you see a church, albeit an oddly solid one with few windows, and no grand portico. At a further glance, it looks like parts of three churches wedged together.
And then from the inside, the full picture becomes clear: Bologna’s Santo Stefano has been under construction and reconstruction for nearly 2000 years, and is, in fact, a cluster of seven churches, all built into and onto and even above each other. It’s referred to locally by that fact: Sette Chiese.
The diagram below, which stands in the church, appears to simplify matters, but walking around in the church only makes clear how complex the connections of the churches are, and how complex the motives of their building. I’ll leave the details to OTHERS.
And here, at the heart of the structure, is a seemingly simple courtyard whose arcades were a wonderful place to rest after a long walk across the city on a disturbingly hot day.
