Basilica of St. Stefano

San Giovanni, Esquilino, Monti

Basilica of St. Stefano
  • Location: Basilica of St. Stefano
  • Address: Via di Santo Stefano Rotondo 7
  • E-Mail: santo.stefano.rotondo@cgu.it
  • Phone#: 06 42119130
  • Opening: Mon.-Sat. from 9:30am to 12:30am and from 2pm to 5pm. Sunday from 9:30am to 12:30am. Monday closed
  • Visit lasts: 1 hour (about)
  • Services:
    Recommended
Its entrance is under the arches of the acqueduct of Nero. The church, with its circular layout, is one of the masterpieces of paleochristian architecture and dates back to the Fifth Century, when it was built on top of a roman barracks, near a mithraeum and a domus of the Valeri family. A study of the beams used for the roofing revealled that they had been cut around 455. The central ambulacro, with 22 columns, is followed by another ring of 34 ancient columns. In the Twelfth Century, Pope Innocent II had the portico added, while in 1453, Bernardo Rossellino restored the complex eliminating a third concentric ring.