At the center of the town of Monteleone Rocca Doria stands the church of Santo Stefano, erected in Romanesque forms according to an early one-nave plan and later enlarged and modified, up to the 19th century.
The building must have been erected by the second half of the 13th century; it was a hall church with a gabled roof and a semi-circular apse oriented to the east, following a very common pattern on the island.
In contrast, the portion of the façade pertaining to the first plant retains the austere characteristics of a Romanesque building. Of the original portal, part of the piers and the buffered lunette arch can be glimpsed. Of the interior it can only be assumed that it was wooden truss.
During the 14th century, perhaps due to changed worship needs and as a result of increased attendance at the site, the building was enlarged by doubling the nave and apse; so that, as we see it today, the church of St. Stephen shows a perfectly structured twin iconography.
