Chiesa di Santo Stefano o Santa Maria di Banno

via Romita - 15079 Sezzadio (AL)
angolo via Roncarino
https://comune.sezzadio.al.it/Luoghi?ID=906

The first known references of the existence of the church include the particularly significant Papal Bull of Innocent III, dated 16 June 1135, in which Santo Stefano of Sezzadio is among the possessions of the monastery of Santo Stefano of Genoa. In the 13th century, it passed to the Cistercian nuns of Santa Maria di Banno di Tagliolo, from which it's current name derives.
The Nuns of the 15th century transfer from Tagliolo to Sezzadio and have the church frescoed.
After the Napoleonic destructions, the church passes to the Town of Sezzadio, and becomes chapel of the cemetery which the Town itself created in the vegetable garden attached to the holy building. The residents of Sezzadio are buried in the vegetable garden, while the church basement is reserved for the burial of priests.
In the last twenty years, simple restoration work has been carried out on the outside, of which a decorative bas-relief remains and, on the inside., several late-medieval frescoes.