Bologna - Basilica dei San Vitale e Sant'Agricola

The "Basilica dei San Vitale e Sant'Agricola" is part of the "Basilica di Santo Stefano" known as "Sette Chiese" (= "Seven Churches") that encompasses a complex of interconnected religious edifices, erected between the 5th and the 13th century.

This church is dedicated to the Saints Vitalis and Agricola, venerated martyrs, who are considered to have died at Bologna about 304, during the Diocletian persecution.

End of the 4th century Bishop Eusebius of Bologna, announced the discovery of the relics of Vitalis and Agricola. When he reburied them, Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, was here and his writings about the event led to popular veneration of these saints.

The church first was named "San Vitale ed Agricola in Arena", as it may have been built over the remains of an amphitheatre where the martyrdom of Vitalis and Agricola had taken place.

Within the 15th century a sarcophag was found here bearing the inscription "Symon". A rumor spread, that the original tomb of Simon Peter - aka Saint Peter. Suddenly pilgrims headed to Bologna instead to Rome. To stop that "business" Pope Eugenius IV ordered to fill up this church with earth - and is stayed so - for 70 years.