Every detail counts in this temple
Historically, the construction of a church has been an event of great social importance. However, at a time when more and more Europeans turn their backs on the Catholic faith , the strange thing, actually, is that some rise.
That is why the project of the Church of the Penitent Thief , erected on the outskirts of Bologna (Italy). It is the joint work of the young teams of architects from INOUTarchitettura, LADO architetti and LAMBER + LAMBER, but also of all the members of the parish.
"The parish of San Lorenzo in Farneto, located in San Lazzaro di Savena, has a very lively and participatory community, made up of people of all ages," the designers tell Traveler.es. “ Parishioners were involved in the elections that have been done in the project from the first phases”, they continue.
Thus, for example, the original idea of arrange the liturgical hall as a quarter circle it is the result of several tests, during which the seating arrangement was changed during mass on several Sundays. And one of the most outstanding aspects of the church is also born from the community: its clear lines, instead of monumental.
quarter circle
“The needs and expectations of the parish communicated to us that they wanted a temple with essential and immediately clear features , welcoming, recognizable by its noble simplicity, with a sober and solemn image, but not monumental, of the mystique of everyday life”, recall its creators.
The result is an architecture whose weight falls on the geometry of its volumes, and which is surprising for its simplicity and details such as the continuous crack that divides the entire building, representing the union between heaven and earth . Also striking are the hazy frescoes, painted directly on the wall by the Merano artist Paolo Mennea. They represent, how could it be otherwise, the story of San Dimas, "the good thief".
But perhaps what stands out the most within the limpid space is the gigantic stone, one of the few elements that can be seen inside the church. “It is the baptismal font”, clarify the architects. "Is about a rock carved and molded personally by the parish priest with the help of a local craftsman ”, they explain, before telling us their curious story.
“From the beginning, the idea of using selenite, a local stone commonly called 'chalk', was very tempting. But we had a big problem: the park that adjoins the temple is a nature reserve, so it is absolutely forbidden to extract stones from the mountain. One day, the priest came across this huge selenite rock while he was cycling through the forest of the Farneto hills . The stone was already separated from the mountain, so technically it could be used! How we managed to transport a five-ton stone from the forest to the church is another story…”, the creators recall.
The baptismal 'stone'
The parish priest that the architects do not stop citing has played a fundamental role in the erection of the building. In fact, they highlight his youth -32 years old when he started the project-: “ He supported us and encouraged us to make sometimes brave decisions, always involving the community in them. ”, details the team, who were inspired for this work by consulting a multitude of books, but, above all, by visiting other temples, both ancient and contemporary, and of several different faiths.
In fact, these architects consider that, right now, there is no main architectural trend that new constructions of this type adhere to, beyond the influence of the Italian Episcopal Conference and the “renewed” way of celebrating the liturgy promoted by it.
The surroundings of the church itself, which replaces and extends a previous one, have also played a role in giving birth to the final design. “The church is in Mura San Carlo, a village in San Lazzaro di Savena, a city of just over 32,000 inhabitants on the outskirts of Bologna. It is located on the border between the urbanized area and the Las Tizas and the Abbadessa Ravines Natural Park , an area of great landscape importance”, they point out.
“The particular building sits within a neighborhood park that the citizens are very attached to, so much so that, in the past, they fought to protect it and prevent it from being built on it ”, they clarify. For this reason, from the beginning, they wanted the parish complex to become an integral part of the park, “without limits or fences, permeable, always open”.
The power of geometry
Hence the idea of organizing the new buildings in such a way that they form an internal, public and leafy courtyard, building an artificial hill in the central building. “It is a sloping lawn, located in front of the adjacent playgrounds, which transforms the architectural volume into an added value of the park, immediately becoming a meeting place for the youth of the neighborhood ”, declare the professionals.
Due to all this, the avant-garde of this proposal is undeniable in a field in which there is usually a tendency to embrace the traditional. “At first, some parishioners were skeptical about the contemporary and essential aspect of this architecture. Today, those same people who expressed those concerns are the first to join the space where the celebration takes place. On the opening day, we breathed a truly exciting atmosphere : the community has a new home in which it recognizes itself and feels comfortable”, conclude the architects behind this innovative project.
An avant-garde project