The earliest record of the Church of St Stephen Protomartyr dates back to 1347, a time when it already had the title of collegiate church, i.e. a church led and officiated by a college of canons, and archpriesthood, i.e. governed by an archpriest. It originally arose as a worship chapel attached to the medieval castle, of which one of the towers, a short distance from the church, remains as evidence today. The building later expanded to encompass all the space originally occupied by the castle.
Various alterations affected the building throughout the following centuries, especially in the 16th and 18th centuries. The last interventions date back to the last century, in the 1970s, when the town hall was built and the square below was landscaped. The tall bell tower, which is attached to the old one, dates back to 1925. The church suffered severe damage in the 1984 earthquake, and remained uninhabitable for a good 19 years. In August 2002, it extraordinarily housed the statue of the Madonna of Canneto on the occasion of the octavary of the feast dedicated to her, and resumed its functions the following year, in August 2003, when after a solemn procession, the Madonna of Canneto was taken back to her original home.
The Triple Belts
On the small wall at the base of the church, adjacent to the access staircase on the left side, four well-marked symbols can be seen in succession, three of which are Triple Girdles while the last one appears to be a Multiple Sacred Centre (alquerque). Since the church has undergone several alterations and renovations over the centuries, it is difficult to determine whether these symbols already existed in the primitive layout, and have been maintained in the subsequent renovations, or are of more recent date
The Triple Belt: Symbology
The symbol of the Triple Crown is very ancient, of uncertain origin and obscure significance. It can be found all over the world and has even been identified with prehistoric and megalithic civilisations. Triple is the Druidic circle of the walls of the Celts and in the Bible we find mentioned the three courtyards surrounded by stones of Solomon's Temple (I Kings, 7, 12), but also the Heavenly Jerusalem with twelve gates (Revelation, 21) shows the same pattern. In the Middle Ages it is found in various versions in Gothic cathedrals (such as Amiens and Somme) and was adopted by the Templars who used it to mark places of particular telluric sacredness. In religious architecture, it is often found engraved both horizontally and vertically on the walls and thresholds of steps in medieval churches.
The Italian scholar Aldo Tavolaro writes that the presence of a Triple Belt indicates «that one is in a place that represents the omphalos of the area, i.e. the centre of physical energies (telluric, magnetic and cosmic currents) that can be exalted by a grouping of people linked by high spirituality. Conversely, the place marked by that symbol is the navel, the central point of an area where the physical conditions exist for the psychic energies emitted, for example, by men in prayer, to multiply. On the other hand, the design is also clear. The Earth, in sacred symbolism, is represented by a square which, in the case under examination, encloses a smaller square and then a third even smaller one, almost as if to focus attention, like a focus, on a minimum central space in the design: the omphalos, the navel. The middle strokes also converge towards the centre.»
