San Giovanni Evangelista a Spinaceto is a late 20th century parish and titular church at Via Raffaele Aversa 44 in the suburb of Spinaceto, south of the Circonvallazione Meridionale on the Via Pontina. This is in the Tor de' Cenci zone.
The dedication is to St John the Evangelist.
History[]
The parish was established in 1964. The new church was designed by Julio Garcia Lafuente, a Spanish architect working with Gaetano Rebecchini, and opened in 1979.
The parish is served by the Figli dell’Amore Misericordioso (Sons of Merciful Love).
The church was made titular in 1985, and the penultimate cardinal priest was Miguel Obando Bravo. He died in 2018, and was replaced by Alvaro Leonel Ramazzini Imeri in 2019.
Appearance[]
The church has a very interesting plan. A square is taken, and the major axis established along one diagonal (from entrance to altar). A smaller square is cut out of the entrance corner, slightly smaller than one quarter the size of the original square. Into this is inserted the entrance wall, a semi-circular cylindrical segment with its inside facing outwards and its ends protruding beyond the sides of the square. Another hemi-cylinder is wrapped around the altar corner, and a smaller one around the left hand corner. Both of these units are higher than the overall flat roof. On the wall to the right of the entrance is attached a cylindrical segment, round the right hand corner is a cylindrical segment with its inside facing outwards and further down the far right hand wall is a tower formed from a cylinder with a segment cut away. Both of these are also higher than the roof. To the left of the entrance is attached a pentagonal structure formed by slicing a corner of a square diagonally, then a small cylindrical segment before the wrap-around tower at the corner mentioned.
By the far left hand wall is a large squat cylindrical tower architecturally separate from the main structure, and in between it and the main edifice is a campanile like half a factory chimney split along its height. The walls are mostly of ashlar blocks in yellow tufa.
The interior walls are not rendered, and so also display surfaces in tufa ashlar. The flat roof is in bare concrete, showing its shuttering marks.
This looks like a fascinating building, and the architects obviously enjoyed designing it. Unfortunately, the only online depictions of it are on the external links given. Being in a rather isolated and distant suburb has obviously given it an undeserved obscurity.
Liturgy[]
Mass is celebrated, according to the Diocese:
Weekdays 7:30, 18:30;
Sundays and Solemnities 8:00, 9:00, 10:00, 11:30, 18:30.
There is Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament from 17:00 to 18:30 on Thursdays.
External links[]
Parish website (Dead link, 2018)
Beweb web-page (the plan is not of the church)