Santa Maria della Consolazione a Tre Pini Poggio dei Fiori is a late 20th century parish church at Via Aldo della Rocca 6, which is in the suburb with the odd name of Tre Pini Poggio dei Fiori in the Tor de' Cenci zone. This is just east of the Via Cristoforo Colombo, and south of the Grande Raccordo Anulare (Circonvallazione Meridionale). Pictures of the church on Wikimedia Commons is here and here.
The dedication is to the Blessed Virgin Mary, under her title of Our Lady of Consolation.
History[]
The parish was erected in 1965, and administered from the beginning by the Augustinian Recollects. The order has a special devotion to Our Lady of Consolation, hence the dedication under that title.
The church was begun in 1977 and completed in 1981, the architect being Ennio Canino. The formal consecration was two years later.
In 1988, the responsibility for the parish was transferred from the Recollects at Rome to the Province of St Nicholas of Tolentino, which had been established in Spain in the 17th century as a special missionary province within the Order.
However, they in turn had to give it up to diocesan clergy by 2017.
Exterior[]
Layout and fabric[]
The edifice has almost a square plan, being a transverse rectangle. The fabric has a reinforced concrete frame, with infill in tufo stone blocks.
The rather small structure has low walls, and is dominated by its massive bright green copper pyramidal roof. This has seven nested V-ribs on each face -the innermost one is very small. The tip of the pyramid has a finial formed of thin metal rods in the form of a sphere of spikes.
To the sides and the back (but not the front) is a thin strip of flat roof running along the bottom of the pyramid, and at the back this melds with the roofing of the single-storey sacristy accommodation.
The sacristy rooms flat a tiny enclosed courtyard containing a palm tree, and in turn joins onto a transversely aligned two-storey block containing the priests' accommodation and parish offices. On the roof of the sacristy area stand two matching blank-walled cubical units, which meld with the second storey of the flat-roofed office block behind. These cubes each bear another thin metal rod finial, this time two-dimensional in the form of a cross with stylised flames.
The left hand cube bears the campanile, which is just a hulking transverse rectangular steel frame in which the bells are hung.
Each of the side walls is of tufo blocks in between a concrete plinth at the bottom and a massive concrete support beam at the top. Under the beam under the central half of the wall is a long rectangular window, flanked by a pair of pilasters in the same style as the wall. The sanctuary wall facing onto the little courtyard also has a window in the same form.
Façade[]
The entrance façade is entirely in glass, in two horizontal zones. Below are the doors, with their glass strengthened by vertical metal bars. Above is a large horizontal rectangular window taking up almost the width of the church.
This low glazed entrance frontage is flanked by two protruding pylons in tufo with flat roofs, each containing a side entrance. The doors of these two entrances are again in glass, with vertical bars.
Interior[]
The straightforward interior is a large square space dominated by the open roof, which is clad in unvarnished pine boards and rests on massive light grey concrete beams. The windows in the side and sanctuary walls have clear glass. The walls are in the same tufo stone blocks as outside.
The floor gives a neat contrast with the grey of the concrete and greyish-brown of the stone, being in bright red square glazed terracotta tiles with a pattern of nested squares in white.
The baptismal font is a shallow stemmed marble vase with an ogee curve, which has a bronze tree in the centre of its bowl.
The Stations of the Cross are in bronze, sculpted by Luca Luchetti.
A striking polychrome statue of Our Lady of Consolation is by the Spanish sculptor José Ignacio Ferrer, and is in a very traditional Spanish iconic style.
Access[]
The church is open from 7:00 to 21:00 daily.
Liturgy[]
Mass is celebrated (parish website, June 2018):
Weekdays 8:30;
Saturdays and eves of Solemnities 8:30, 19:00;
Sundays and Solemnities 10:30, 12:00, 19:00.
These times are for summer 2018. In the past in winter, there has been a weekday Mass at 18:00, a Sunday Mass at 8:00 and the Saturday and Sunday evening Masses at 18:00 instead of 19:00.