Via Crociarone 12 - It is the oldest sacred building in the current Cervia area, already mentioned in the X century.
The parish church of Santo Stefano is located in the hinterland of Cervia, nine kilometers from the coast. During the excavations carried out in 1912, Roman bricks and a fragment of a tombstone were found
Probably the church was raised over a previous pagan temple, as a sacred altar was placed in support of the holy water font with the depiction of the god Mithras.
Initially dependent on the city of Cesena, it definitively became part of the diocese of Cervia around 1340. Rebuilt from its foundations in 1521, on the ruins of the pre-existing parish church, severely damaged by hordes of soldiers disbanded after the battle of Ravenna, it was consecrated to Santo Stefano in 1527. The parish church, entirely in terracotta, small and well proportioned, has simple and pure architectural lines. In the southern part of the building there is a fragment of a cross with a blessing hand from the 12th century.
These crosses were placed along the roads, to signal to pilgrims the proximity of a hospitium where they could stop during their long journey.
Inside, the apse is decorated with sixteenth-century frescoes attributed to the Ravenna painter Luca Longhi (1507-1580).