San Luca a Via Prenestina is a modern parish and titular church with a postal address at Via Luchino Dal Verme 50, in the centre of the suburb of Prenestino. This address is the back door, since the main entrance is on the Largo di San Luca Evangelista to the south. Pictures of the church on Wikimedia Commons. [1]

The patron saint is Luke the Evangelist, and the present titular is José Freire Falcão.

ExteriorEdit

It was designed in a modernist style based on the neo-Romanesque by the partnership of Lucio and Vincenzo Passarelli, and was completed in 1957. It is on a rectangular plan with an attached shallow rectangular apse, having a reinforced concrete frame and red brick exterior walls. The roof is concrete, pitched but with eight dormer gables on each side giving the side rooflines a zig-zag profile. The church is approached via a flight of steps, because it is built over a crypt.

The gabled façade has three vertical zones. The central zone, twice as wide as the outer ones, is of blank red brick. The entrance doorway is also simply brick. However, over the entrance is a very large square stone tablet bearing a series of ceramic sculptures in high relief whic depict Biblical scenes associated with St Luke. This is by Angelo Biancini. The outer two zones are both entirely made up of window, with the mullions criss-crossing on the diagonal to make a pattern of horizontally aligned diamond lozenges. Over each of these two enormous windows is placed a very large vertical concrete pillar bearing a ridge all along its height, and having three horizontal beams on each side. The underside of these beams is sloped, giving the whole ensemble the vague appearance of a tree.

These two windows are slightly recessed, hence the side walls appear to protrude slightly. The concrete gable roofline also protrudes, and at its outer ends is horizontal. The dormer windows are one continuous strip with the same style of fenestration, and there are two similar enormous vertical windows either side of the apse. The apse wall beind the altar is not brick, but concrete cast in the form of interlocking triangles running from top to bottom.

The tall detached campanile is to the left of the church. It has a rectangular plan, with a concrete pilaster on each corner and the narrower sides open, with horizontal beams like the rungs of a ladder. The wider sides have beams as well, but are infilled in red brick. The bells are in the open flat-roofed storey at the top.

InteriorEdit

The inside roof follows the pattern of the external one, and hence displays a spectacular pattern of interlocking triangular voids. It is painted white, as are the side walls. There are very narrow aisles, created by the pillars of the concrete frame of the edifice standing away from the side walls and attached by two horizontal beams each. These pillars are in cream-coloured concrete and taper towards the top, rather like chisels.

The windows are all of clear plate glass, so the interior is filled with natural light.

The apse wall behind the altar, and the walls under the windows either side of the apse, are entirely covered with modern mosaics focusing on a gilded bronze crucifix with Our Lady and St John on either side. Figurative representations of the Father and Holy Spirit are at the top. Below the crucifix is Christ Pantocrator, flanked by interesting architecural studies in mosaic of rooms with views and cloth hangings in red. To the right of the altar is a small icon of the Madonna and Child, and to the left is the tabernacle with a mosiaic of loaves and fishes, looking very Classical, on the door. The outer walls under the windows have crowds of adoring apostles.

The font, in the top right hand corner, is circular with a stylized mosaic ribbon in blue around it symbolizing water. To the left, the ambo or pulpit has mosaic representations of the symbols of the Evangelists on it. The ceramic Stations of the Cross, and the pottery triptych of the Annunciation in the right hand aisle, are also by Bianchi. In the right aisle also is a neo-Baroque polychrome wooden statue of St Luke, in a recess with an abstract mosaic background.

This is one of the best churches of the Fifties in Rome, and is worth visting.

External linksEdit

• Official diocesan web-page
• Italian Wikipedia page
• The Biancini relief
• Aerial photos