Church of Santo Stefano

Beautiful old church close to the cemetery of Bizzozero surrounded by greenery, a quiet and peaceful place as few now find it, an ideal place for those looking for a bit of relaxation or simply a moment of tranquility away from the hectic everyday life

It is a very suggestive place even if it is rare to find it open I have never been able to see it from the inside and the first time but the frescoes give it a unique beauty

The church of Santo Stefano is a religious building dating back to the VII - VIII century and subsequently modified, which is located in Bizzozero, a hamlet of Varese. It is a national monument. The internal walls are partially bare, with the presence of stone blocks arranged "herringbone" (opus spicatum), and partly frescoed. The frescoes date back to different periods: the oldest are in Romanesque style while others mostly date back to the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. The only frescoes that have been given a certain authorship are present in the ciborium and are signed by Galdino da Varese (1498). The frescoes in the apse bear the date 1536 and have been combined, by invoice and layout, with those in the apse of the Church of San Pietro a Gemonio. The bell tower of the church dates back to the 10th century, only the upper part was modified in the 15th century.

Beautiful historical church. to be over a thousand years old, it still has some frescoes preserved. It is often closed to the public, but it can also be worth admiring it from the outside.

Beautiful example of Romanesque art dating back to the VII-VIII century, with a magnificent bell tower embellished with mullioned windows. In the small church there are precious remains of frescoes by Galdino da Varese. To visit absolutely! A little known jewel in the outskirts of Varese.

The austere beauty of Romanesque architecture continues to live in Varese in the stones of the church of Santo Stefano a Bizzozero, and in particular in the large apse and in the slender bell tower, built before the year 1000, which overlooks the extended cemetery in the place where there was a Roman necropolis. The discovery on site of a serizzo altar engraved with a dedication to the god Silvano - "Tertullus, son of Censorino, with his family (he did) build in Silvano for the dissolution of a vow" -, now kept in the section archaeological site of the Civic Museum of Villa Mirabello, suggests that a pagan temple rose in the area. Not surprisingly, in the texture of the walls, in addition to the classic river pebbles, materials obtained from buildings and burials of the necropolis are visible, such as Roman cornerstones and fragments of tombstones. The decorative ribbons of blind arches are common to contemporary churches in the Varese area such as the Canonica di Brezzo di Bedero. The church dedicated to the first martyr has its roots in two previous buildings of worship, one from the seventh century of the Christian era and the other built between the eighth and ninth centuries. The interior of Santo Stefano, with a single nave, is richly frescoed with works dating from the 11th to the 16th century. Of great interest is the ciborium, built in 1498 by Galdino da Varese. embellished, on the back wall, by a Madonna del latte from the late fourteenth century, and the large apse, decorated with frescoes dated 1536 that were combined with those present in the apse of the Romanesque church of San Pietro a Gemonio. On the walls of the nave, in the ciborium and in the apse basin, the representations of the four Holy Fathers of the Church, the Sibyls and the Prophets, St. Stephen, Christ in Glory, the Madonnas Enthroned for votive use have been recognized. In a decentralized position, on the road to Schianno, with respect to the inhabited center of Bizzozero which developed on the relief overlooking the Olona valley, the Romanesque church lost importance and underwent a decline that stopped only in the early 1970s when the building was object of a skilful restoration curated by the architect Bruno Ravasi and promoted by the parish priest of the time, the canon don Luigi Antonetti, with the support of a committee led by Silvano Colombo and Giuseppe Terziroli.

Unfortunately the church was closed and there is no indication of time. It deserves to be visited.