San Francesco Saverio alla Garbatella
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| San Francesco Saverio alla Garbatella | |
|---|---|
| | |
| English name: | Francis Xavier at Garbatella |
| Dedication: | Francis Xavier |
| Denomination: | Roman Catholic |
| Built: | 1933 |
| Contact data | |
| Address: | Via Daniele Comboni 4 |
San Francesco Saverio alla Garbatella is a modern parish and titular church at Via Daniele Comboni 4 in the centre of the suburb of Garbatella, which is part of the Ostiense district. Pictures of the church on Wikimedia Commons. [1]
The patron saint is Francis Xavier, and the present titular is Franc Rodé.
Exterior
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It was designed by Alberto Calza Bini to a a derivative neo-Classical design, and opened in 1933. One of the more monumental of the modern Roman churches, it has a Latin cross plan with a high central dome and a presbyterium with semi-circular apse. The exterior walls are mostly in pink brick, with architectural details in travertine. The roofs are pitched and tiled. The nave has two aisles, and the exterior aisle walls have four brick pilasters supporting buttresses which join to the central nave upper walls. There are five square windows in between the pilasters, but no windows above the nave arcades. The main transepts do not protrude beyond the aisle walls, but they have lower add-ons which do and which have a large lunette window each. The tall ellipsoidal dome is leaded and ribbed, and bears a lantern with its own little dome. The dome drum has a wavy plan, alternatively bowed and coved, and the bowed sections bear a vertical rectangular window each. The apse is decorated with empty arched niches below its roofline.
The gabled entrance façade has two storeys, and a recessed central section in the first storey where the main entrance is. All the architectural details are in travertine. The main entrance has a stone doorcase with wide posts, and above it is a rectangular panel containing a cross and circle design. Flanking the entrance are two columns in the round, with imposts but no capitals. They support an entablature which runs across the width of the façade, and which bears a dedicatory inscription. Also supporting the entablature are two large rectangular pilasters either side of the recessed section, and another two on the outer corners of the aisles. In between the pairs of pilasters are squeezed the aisle entrances, which unusually are slightly taller than the main entrance. Above these are Papal coats of arms on brick panels. Above the entablature, in the second storey, the entrance recess is continued by a recessed arc which contains a trapezoidal window surrounded by white; the rest of the storey, including below the sloping aisle rooflines, is in plain brick except for the crowning entablature and pediment. This is defaced with the coat of arms of Pope Pius XI carved in relief.
InteriorEdit
The cool interior is mostly rendered in white, and lacks colour. The aisle arcades have columns with Ionic capitals, and the rather tall entablature they support runs round the rest of the interior. Panels with cross and circle designs in fretwork, to a pattern similar to that over the main entrance, are inserted in places under the entablature. The otherwise blank internal apse, which has a conch, is provided with a fresco of St Francis Xavier in the act of preaching.
