San Giuseppe Artigiano a Via Tiburtina is a mid 20th century parish church at Largo San Giuseppe Artigiano 15, in the suburb of Portonaccio to the south-east of the Tiburtina train station. This is part of the Collatino quarter.
The dedication is to St Joseph the Worker, that is, to the foster-father of Jesus Christ as one who earned the Holy Family 's livelihood through his work. His feast day is May 1.
History[]
The parish was erected in 1958.
The church was designed by Giorgio Monaco and Ferdinando Barbaliscia, and begun in 1956. In the following year the crypt was completed, and consecrated when the parish was set up. Unfortunately, it was then decided not to proceed with construction and nothing has happened since.
However, a wish to build the main church remains in place and in 2009 the architect Luca Punzi published a proposal (see the Youtube video here).
Exterior[]
The church is part of a larger complex comprising a single large low building, having a flat roof and exterior walls in red on a rather complex plan.
The overall plan is rectangular, comprising three geometric units in order along the major axis from the entrance. Firstly, a rectangle which is almost a square. This contains an interior courtyard or atrium, with wings on either side. Secondly, a transverse rectangle with the exterior walls slightly bowed. Finally, at the far end there is a pentagonal unit created by having two walls meeting at an angle behind the altar and which has its side walls aligned with the rest of the church.
Over the entrance to the courtyard is a large triangular canopy created by having two white concrete slabs lean against each other, with their footings on the flat roofs of the wings either side of the courtyard.
The church is set back from the road. Near the gate from the latter is the campanile, if it can be called that. The bells hang from what looks like a child's climbing frame in two dimensions, made of steel bars in grey and having the shape of an L. It bears a large cross, since the church edifice does not have a cross finial.
Interior[]
Because the crypt was originally intended for ancillary activities, it does not actually contain an adequate worshipping space.
The room being used as the church is hexagonal, with a large four-sided apse as a sanctuary. All the sides of both nave and sanctuary, except the two far sides of the latter, lead into other rooms. The ferial chapel is adjacent to the near right hand side of the sanctuary.
The nave has four octagonal concrete columns in the form of a square, and the pair on each side bears an "arcade" having pentagonal apertures instead of round-headed ones. The horizontal longitudinal beams supported by the columns have shallow angles incut into their lower faces in between their supports.
The church has a hung set of important paintings by Agostino De Romanis, executed in 1987 and depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments. Two of these flank the altar. There is a slideshow gallery on the parish website -the work is very impressive, and the Old Testament ones are distinctly surrealist.
The near side walls of the sanctuary are glass screens. The bottom half of each is clear glass including the doors, but the top half is brightly coloured stained glass with the theme of The Saints in Heaven.
Access[]
The church is open daily from 7:45 to 12:00, and 16:30 to 19:00 (17:00 to 20:00 in summer).
Liturgy[]
Mass is celebrated (May 2018):
Weekdays 18:00 (19:00 in summer);
Sundays and Solemnities 8:30 (not August), 11:00, 18:00 (19:00 in summer).
There is Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament on:
First Fridays from 9:00 to 17:00;
Thursdays 9:00 to 10:00, and 17:00 to 18:00.
The morning Mass on weekdays has been dropped.