Chiesa di Santo Stefano Protomartire

Outside the walls of Santo Stefano di Sessanio stands the church dedicated to the village's patron saint. Rebuilt after earthquakes, it links the stone borgo with its surrounding pastoral landscape.

Why it matters

Regional tourism material dates the church's construction to the fourteenth or fifteenth century; it is also known as Chiesa di Santo Stefano fuori le mura. Its location outside the village walls links it to the settlement's earlier landscape. Earthquakes, including those of 1703 and 2009, form part of the building's history.

What to notice

Descriptions of the facade note a round oculus and a portal framed in pale stone beneath a round arch; the lunette above the doorway was once painted. A square bell tower stands at the side, and the apse curves at the rear. Accounts describe a three-aisled interior with a wider, cross-vaulted central nave, eighteenth-century canvases in the side aisles and a statue near the high altar, whose forms include Baroque stucco ornament.

Context and history

Accounts describe the earlier church as a single-naved building outside the fortified core, near the village cemetery. The 1703 earthquake damaged it, after which it was substantially rebuilt; its present appearance is described as mid-eighteenth-century, while the portal retains forms associated with the older structure. The 2009 earthquake brought further damage, and local accounts report post-seismic repairs. During the period when this church awaited works, the Chiesa del Suffragio served parish functions.