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Church of the Holy Face of Jesus at Magliana: Contemporary Architecture and Sacred Art in Rome's Most Densely Populated District
The Church of the Santo Volto di Gesù is located in the Magliana district, between apartment blocks from the 1960s and a bend in the river Tiber. Designed by architects Piero Sartogo and Nathalie Grenon and inaugurated in March 2006, it is one of the most successful examples of contemporary religious architecture in Rome, comparable to Richard Meier's church of Dio Padre Misericordioso (God the Merciful Father) and to that of San Francesco di Sales.
A Dome That Looks Both Inward and Outward
The church has a unique feature: the semi-dome, 20 metres in diameter, does not merely enclose the interior space, but also projects outwards, beyond the great glazed wall behind the altar. The nave has an amphitheatre-like layout — the faithful are all pointed towards the pulpit — and is clad entirely in Roman travertine. An open-air parvis cuts the volume in two, and points directly towards the large external cross, a work by Eliseo Mattiacci: it is the symbolic and geometric fulcrum of the entire complex.
Eight Artists for a Collective Work
Sartogo and Grenon revived the medieval tradition of the building site being a collective endeavour. Eight artists made their contribution: Mimmo Paladino created the Stations of the Cross in glazed ceramic tiles, Carla Accardi an abstract stained-glass window separating the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament from the nave, and Marco Tirelli, Giuseppe Uncini, Chiara Dynys, Pietro Ruffo and Jannis Kounellis provided the remaining liturgical furnishings.
