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Pieve Santo Stefano

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Pieve Santo Stefano

Tales of light and uninterrupted ancient football tournaments in costume. A land favoured by Etruscans and Romans, Pieve Santo Stefano is one of the first settlements along the River Tiber, which begins a few kilometres further north.

An ancient centre for harvesting and transit of timber, it was called suppetia, or "supplier", thanks to the wood from these forests and the logs that went to Rome to become powerful ships, houses and pagan temples.

Its origins date back to the Neolithic times, but finds from bronze age settlements were found. However, the first written document was attested in 723 when the area was part of the Byzantine corridor, which at that time cut Italy in two by connecting Ravenna to Rome. The conquest of the Tiber Valley by the Lombards, led by King Liutprando, was followed by the Franks of Charlemagne, who brought the precepts of Christianity.

A popular belief that dates back centuries to its most celebrated feast, dedicated to the Madonna dei Lumi, who is worshiped in the church of the same name. A wonderful ritual that is repeated every year, in tribute to the Virgin, when everyone lights up the land with lanterns, torchlight along the lanes, and illuminates the river's riverbed with burning torches. A “light”party linked to the Palio dei Lumi, a historic football tournament with the challenge of the teams representing the towns districts (Centro Paese, Ponte Nuovo, Ponte Vecchio and Rialto).

A town loved by Lorenzo the Magnificent, who brought the most renowned masters of Renaissance art to Pieve Santo Stefano and that in the past years has been the temple of the masterpieces of Della Robbia, Piero della Francesca and Ghirlandaio. A heritage now lost, submerged by the power of flood waters during the terrible flood of 1855. The same bitter destiny awaited the ancient buildings of the historic centre, with the exception of the Pretorio Palace and the Municipal building, that were destroyed by mines distributed by the Germans as well as a violent earthquake in 1944.

Inside the council building there is only one piece of art in terracotta, made by Girolamo and Luca della Robbia, depicting the Samaritan.

City of the Diary is the name with which the resort is known, as it preserves as a national archive, based on the idea of ​​the journalist and writer Saverio Tutino, the testimonies of people's lives expressed in war stories, secret diaries, stories of migrants and stories of love.

The church of the Madonna dei Lumi, built between the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth, has preserved the church of Madonna dei Lumi, with its Greek cross plan, the dome frescoed by Luigi Ademollo and the seventeenth-century Florentine paintings, and the Collegiate of Santo Stefano, with the Assumption and Santi in glazed terracotta by Andrea della Robbia.

Nature lovers appreciate the paths in the surrounding greenery. With the possibility of cycling or, participating in historical events such as the “Cronoscalato dello Spino" ,  a part of the Italian championship of historic cars.

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