TORRE (CAMPANILE) DI SANTO STEFANO

The bell tower is the only remaining evidence of the Romanesque church of the Benedictine monks of the abbey, founded in 1044. From the ’500 the abbey has undergone a gradual demolition which spared only the bell tower. Today the bell tower has a development of six floors divided into many backgrounds with hanging arches and pilasters. The initial plan presents slit-like openings while the subsequent three floors have: the second still slits, the third single and the fourth light windows on all sides. On the fifth and sixth floor there is an evident reduction in height, it ceases the central pilaster, appears a trifora lowest of the underlying windows. The ornament of the building is constituted by corner and intermediate pilasters to the fourth floor, a frieze marcapiano sawtooth in brickwork, sharp hanging arches in the first floors and more squat in the upper floors.