The archaeological investigation of the site of S. Stefano (Isola del Cantone, GE) is part of the “Medieval Archaeology in the upper Scrivia Valley” project run by the University of Turin’s department of history.

The research, which began some years ago with the open-area excavation of the Roman and late antique rural settlement of Montessoro, aims to study the settlement and structures in the rural territories of the upper Scrivia valley between the late antique and late medieval periods. This settlement, situated between Genoa and the plain has never been systematically investigated and was chosen as a sample area for gathering data regarding the socio-economic, cultural, and environmental dynamics of the Ligurian Apennines in the period in question.

The remains of the chapel dedicated to S.Stefano stand on a hillside terrace (380 m a.s.l.), occupied by a coppice, above the village of Isola del Cantone. The presence of this building can be associated with the road, which until the 1930s linked the Scrivia to the Val Borbera and to Tortona (in Piemonte).

Surface surveys undertaken in diverse periods in the surrounding area revealed the presence of Roman rural settlements linked to the roads that were an alternative or subsidiaries to the via Postumia that linked Genoa with settlements on the plain. The chapel, part of the diocese of Tortona (AL), is mentioned for the first time in the account of a pastoral visit in 1600, which attests its dependence on the parish of Montessoro and documents its very poor state of preservation. In 1645 and 1658, the Bishop of Tortona visited the chapel again. The document states that in 1680, the rector of Isola, Giò Maria Deferrari, wrote a petition to lay claim to the chapel for the church of Isola and that in 1787 the bishop ordered the restoration of the roof, walls and altar, threatening interdiction if this work was not carried out. At the beginning of the 19th century, the chapel was still used for services and despite its very bad state of preservation, a fresco depicting S. Stefano, S. Lorenzo, and S. Giovanni Battista was still visible.

In 1986, the ‘Centro Culturale di Isola del Cantone’ cleaned the site, removing a large part of the collapsed levels and obliterating what was later revealed to be the structure’s final building phase: a small single-apsed building, with a stone floor and brick-built altar. On the west side, the traces of two buried walls were identified outside the building. The apse wall, built of marlstone ashlar blocks, was dated to the 12th-13th century. As well as recovering pottery dating to between the 18th and 19th centuries, the excavation found a green stone Neolithic axe and a fragment of a Roman roof tile. Following these interventions, the local council consolidated the chapel walls, standing to a maximum height of 1.5 m, using cement. If on the one hand this preserved the structures from further decay, on the other it made it difficult to read the plan and stratigraphy. As the elements described so far are of considerable historical-archaeological interest, in 2014 a first excavation campaign took place.

The investigation aimed to define the plan, evaluate the potential of the stratigraphy and date the site more precisely. An excavation area of 135 m2 was opened, which has begun to shed light on the building’s construction phases, probably dating to the 13th century, and which until it was reduced in size to become a chapel (between the 18th and 19th centuries) had been a larger structure. The discovery of burials outside the chapel suggests that until the modern period, it functioned as a parish church or a private chapel.