Situated at the end of the Lungo Dora and almost overlooking the river, Santo Stefano Tower is one of the most precious testimonies of medieval Ivrea.
It is in fact a Romanesque bell tower — the only surviving part of the Benedictine abbey of Santo Stefano, which was dependent on the abbey of Fruttuaria at San Benigno Canavese and founded in 1044, according to historical tradition, by Guglielmo da Volpiano himself.
Its history is a troubled one: flourishing until the mid-fifteenth century, the abbey entered a period of decline that culminated in the demolition of the church and other buildings in 1554 by the French.
What remained was purchased by Count Baldassarre Perrone di San Martino around the middle of the eighteenth century — but in order to continue the demolition and make room for the gardens of his palace, today known as Palazzo Giusiana. Only the bell tower and the adjoining granary survived, the latter subsequently converted into a church.
At the end of the nineteenth century this church too — to which a building housing first a workshop and then a tavern had in the meantime been added — was demolished, leaving the bell tower standing alone.
This splendid Romanesque bell tower, built in the lower sections in brick and stone and in the upper sections in brick alone to reduce its weight, is adorned with terracotta hanging arches and lit by single, double and triple-light windows that give it a particular elegance. Its resemblance to the bell tower of its “mother house” — the Benedictine abbey of Fruttuaria — is clearly visible.
Santo Stefano Tower has thus known, over the centuries: splendour, decline, an earthquake, French artillery, use as a stable, use as part of a water distribution system, and finally the recent and well-deserved restoration that gives it its current appearance.
