Torre Santo Stefano, Romanesque bell tower in Ivrea, Italy

Torre Santo Stefano is the surviving 11th-century Romanesque bell tower of the lost Benedictine abbey of Santo Stefano, standing in the Giardini Giusiana. Its lower section mixes brick and stone blocks, while the upper levels use brick alone to reduce weight. Each storey is topped by small brick arches and pierced by a series of single, double and triple round-arched windows.

The tower is the only surviving part of the Benedictine abbey of Santo Stefano, founded in 1041 by monks from Fruttuaria at the wish of Bishop Enrico II, on the site of a chapel to Saint Stephen perhaps dating from the 5th century. French troops destroyed the abbey church in 1558, and the monastery was demolished in 1757 for the gardens of Palazzo Perrone; a makeshift church in a former granary was pulled down in 1898, leaving the bell tower alone. It was extensively restored around 2000.

The tower stands isolated in the Giardini Giusiana, the public gardens laid out along Corso Re Umberto after the monastery's last buildings were demolished in 1898. Its name recalls Saint Stephen, to whom the early chapel on the site was dedicated. The bell tower is the only remnant of the Benedictine abbey founded in 1041.

The tower stands isolated inside the Giardini Giusiana, a public garden on Corso Re Umberto near the Dora Baltea. It is a free-standing structure with no museum rooms around it, so visitors view it from the garden paths; the surrounding park is the practical reference point for finding it.

The tower is not a defensive work but the surviving bell tower of the Benedictine abbey of Santo Stefano, founded in 1041 by monks from Fruttuaria at the wish of Bishop Enrico II. Its masonry, using Roman spolia, was noted as a possible defence for the marshy left bank of the Dora, yet the abbey church was destroyed by French troops in 1558 and the monastery demolished in 1757 for the gardens of Palazzo Perrone. The bell tower alone remained, isolated in 1898 when a shed-church was pulled down.