Basilica Santuario Santo Stefano - Complesso delle Sette Chiese

About this audio guide

This guide to the Basilica Santuario Santo Stefano in Bologna follows a fifteenth-century tomb carved with the name SYMON, and the pilgrims who came to believe it held Saint Peter himself, buried far from Rome. It traces how Pope Eugenius IV reacted to the rival claim, and how the church was later reopened by a Bolognese cardinal who would go on to reshape Saint Peter's in Rome. The trail continues a few steps away, in the Cortile di Pilato, at a worn stone basin tied to another disputed relic. Listen for how each object stakes its claim to truth in this quiet Bolognese courtyard.