The Basilica Santo Stefano, also known as the Church of the Seven Churches. It earned this nickname by having- you guessed it- seven churches that actually make up the Monastery. Unfortunately, the monks use some of them, so not all of them are open to visitors. The ones that are, though, are beautiful. The site was built up over quite a long time, and bits of it date back to pre-christian times, when the site was used as a mystery cult's temple, due to the "mystical properties" of a spring on the site. Later, this spring would be used for baptisms- another example of what made christianity spread so rapidly, its willingness to encorporate elements of the local religion to win converts.
At one time the church was so popular that the congregation couldn't fit inside the building to worship, so the round balcony on the left of the photos was built to act as an outdoor pulpit. There is currently no access to it from the inside of the church.
Most of the following pictures come from the octagonal structure in the
center of the top picture (and the left of the bottom one), which is the site
of the spring mentioned above.
| 
| 
|