Bologna - "Basilica di Santo Stefano"

The "Basilica di Santo Stefano" known as "Sette Chiese" (= "Seven Churches") encompasses a complex of interconnected religious edifices, erected between the 5th and the 13th century.

According to tradition Saint Petronius, a bishop during the 5th century, built the first basilica. He actually wished a building that recalled the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

Petronius´ church got severely damaged during the devastating invasions of Hungarian troops in the tenth century. The octogonal Basilica del Sepolcro got rebuilt a century later by Benedictian monks.

Next to the Basilica del Sepolcro is "Cortile di Pilato" ("Pilate's courtyard"), one of two cloisters of the complex. The building seen in the back is the Chiesa della Trinità o del Martyrium ("Church of the Trinity or the Martyrium"), a church that never got completed.