Pieve di Santo Stefano, Camaiore

Facade of church

Santo Stefano or San Giovanni Battista e Santo Stefano is a mixed Romanesque-style, Roman Catholic rural parish church, located in the Piazza Don Renzo Gori in the frazione of Pieve, located south east of Camaiore in the province of Lucca, Tuscany, Italy.

History and description

Roman sarcophagi used as baptismal font

This church is first documented in 817, as the Ecclesie S. Stefani in loco Campo Maiore. Tradition holds that this was one of the pieve erected in the sixth century by San Frediano, bishop of Lucca. It was located near the via Francigena, and served as it main church in the until construction in 1255 of the church of Santa Maria Assunta in the center of town.

Originally it was consecrated only to St Stephen, in the ninth century the name of St. John the Baptist was added, since it acquired the privilege of having the baptismal font and the cemetery.

The layout is that of a Latin-cross and its façade is oriented to the west, while its semicircular apse to the east. The facade has a single portal added in 17th century. The rounded arch of a prior portal can still be seen. Above the portal is a statue of madonna and child, while in the upper register is a mullioned window. The stone bell-tower also has mullioned windows. A refurbishment of the church in 1938 restored the features as possible to the Romanesque origins. The mosaic floor consists of coloured marble geometric patterns. One item of note in the church is that an Ancient Roman sarcophagus (2nd or 3rd century) was reused to make the baptismal font. Bianco Bianchi (1464–1541), a chronicler from Camaiore, claimed that sarcophagi had originally contained the ashes of Lucio Imbricio, for whom Lombrici, where it was found, was subsequently named. The church also houses a fourteenth-century triptych by Battista from Pisa, depicting an Enthroned Madonna and Saints.

References

• Bellato, Franco, Camaiore e dintorni, Comune di Camaiore, Camaiore, 1999
• Dinelli, Pier Paolo, C’era una volta Campus Maior La storia raccontata dai ragazzi