Chiesa Collegiata di Santo Stefano Protomartire (Duomo di Bracciano)

Bracciano's collegiate church of Santo Stefano Protomartire began as the borgo's parish church around 1200. Rebuilt over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the three-nave church stands on the main square below the castle and preserves important paintings and liturgical objects.

Why it matters

The parish is documented as Bracciano's oldest. Its medieval church stood within the town walls but outside the baronial palace precinct. When the Orsini made Bracciano a ducal seat, they rebuilt the principal church. The present building rose between 1609 and 1619, incorporating the late-medieval bell tower, and was consecrated in 1671.

What to notice

The Latin-cross plan has three naves divided by two rows of pillars. Giacomo Zoboli's eighteenth-century canvases depict the Lapidation of Saint Stephen and the Baptism of Christ. The church also holds a sixteenth-century baptismal font, a late-sixteenth-century wooden ciborium and a gilded wooden reliquary from the late seventeenth century. The facade dates from later eighteenth-century maintenance campaigns, and the two-ramp staircase was built in 1869 when the piazza was laid out. The 1315 triptych attributed to Gregorio and Donato d'Arezzo is preserved in the adjacent cathedral museum.

Context and history

A rebuilding was under way by the mid-sixteenth century; by 1554 the new structure was large enough for the feast of Saint Sebastian to be celebrated there. Construction of the present church ran from 1609 to 1619. In 1638, the chapter consulted Roman architect Orazio Turriani to enlarge the building and address humidity problems; he is traditionally credited with its design, though documents describe him as a consultant. A masonry high altar replaced the earlier wooden altar in 1685. Eighteenth-century works gave the church its present facade. In the twentieth century, a chapel was adapted to house processional panels of the Holy Saviour.