Saint Stephen’s church is built on the rock which is at the entrance of Cividate watching  the Roman bridge. For a long time it (the bridge) has been one of the few permanent points crossing the river Oglio and only in the 19th century it was built further down. To give evidence of the importance it had in the Middle Ages many documents of the period list the several expenses for the maintenance that also the neighbouring villages had to support. The road that led to the original entrance of the church starts from the square close to the bridge. It is one of the most important historical and archeological site of the communal ter-ritory. The escavations made at the end of the 60S have shown how this site has been frequented since the Bronze Age and how it is one of the most fascinating examples of ar-cheological stratifications of the whole Camonica Valley. The excavation executed on the cliff has giver back materials belonging to the Bronze Age, (II mill b.c.) to the Iron Age (I mill b.c.) also the Roman period. Roman materials are present also in the masonries and probably come from the demolitions and the recycings of that period. The ruins of the Ro-man period structures were found during the escavations made near the apse and, at the foot of the cliff you can see the wall of a Roman house. The present shapes of the church are the result of several modifications during the centuries.
The foundation of the church takes place in the Carolingian period, 7th-8th centuries A. D.
It was a building of small dimensions with a rectangular apse the analysis of the elevations has allowed us to characterize the masonries still existing at the sides of the aisle as high medieval.
Around the 12th-13th centuries, the church has sustained widenings in Romanesque shapes with the lengthening of the aisle, the changing from the rectangular apse to the semicircular one and the preexisting windows were reduced in a way to form single lancet windows similar to loopholes. Inside the apse during the excavations the Romanesque al-tar it has come to light.  It was set up on the upturned base of a column of Roman age and with fresco traces. Later , in the 15th century, new structures were built: a porch overlook-ing the cliff few traces of which and the sacristy remain.
Then the Romanesque bell tower was  modified. At the end of the  18th century the access changed place realizing stone steps coming up from Palace street, you can only see the walled arch in the boundary, wall of the site. Then the bell tower was raised and a new structure was built incorporating the porch. Doors and windows are opened that regularly faced. In this way the church assumes the present shapes.