Sacri Cuori di Gesù e Maria is a mid 20th century parish and titular church, the postal address of which is Via Poggio Moiano 12, just south-east of the junction between the Via Salaria and the Circonvallazione Salaria in the Trieste quarter. However, the main entrance is in Via Magliano Sabina. Pictures of the church on Wikimedia Commons are here.
The dedication is to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. (The tradition in Italian is to refer to both as "Sacred Heart", but in English this title is reserved to that of Jesus.)
History[]
The parish was established in 1950. The church was designed by the Mario Paniconi and Giulio Pediconi, and opened in 1957 for the suburban locality called Tor Fiorenza. Work on the interior continued for another two years.
The church was made titular in 2015, the first cardinal priest being Edoardo Menichelli. The title is not the same as the name of the church, being Sacri Cuori di Gesù e Maria a Tor Fiorenza.
Exterior[]
The plan is based on a Latin cross, with an unaisled nave of five bays, a transept wider than the nave on each side, a sanctuary bay and a four-sided polygonal apse. The roofs are pitched and tiled, including the apse, and there is a little octagonal lantern over the crossing with a conical cupola.
The gabled façade is a Modernist interpretation of neo-Romanesque, with large and undecorated concrete piers occupying the outer corners. There are no windows, but a horizontally striped decorative effect is achieved by alternating broad bands of yellowish limestone with narrow bands of dark grey brick.
Over the doorway there is a large and striking unpainted terracotta relief of the Crucifixion by Alfio Castelli, and this is protected by a large floating concrete box with open floor. Four horizontal bands of white marble cross the façade, one at the bottom, two at the top and bottom of the box (the latter forms the door lintel) and one at the gable making a false pediment. In the latter is the coat of arms of Pope Pius XII. The doorcase is also of marble. There is a pair of square grilles with round airholes on each side of the door.
The side walls and the apse of the church are made up from an infilled grid of concrete piers and beams, two of the latter in each bay, and has horizontal slit windows below the beams. However, the right hand transept frontage, which is on a side street, is decorated in the same way as the façade.
The campanile is a simple open concrete frame attached to the left hand end of the transept.
Interior[]
The interior walls are undecorated, except for the apse, and hence show the same grid of concrete beams as the exterior. The décor of the nave and transept is a creamy white, with architectural elements in light grey.
The roof is open, with narrow concrete beams running longitudinally and triangular transverse trusses.
The apse walls are rendered in salmon-pink. The re-ordering of the sanctuary after 1970 has brought the main altar forward, and in the apse is now the tabernacle in a throne made up of six pale grey thin vertical rectangular panels. The central pair of these is taller, and flanks a blue zone containing the actual tabernacle. The colour combination of pink-grey-blue sound alarming, but actually works. Over the throne is a circular mosaic of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a figurative depiction in a neo-Byzantine style in an offset position recessed within the circular plaque bearing a polychrome glory.
The Stations of the Cross are by Sergio Marcelli, and are in a realistic style. The pulpit, by contrast, has a square front panel bearing polychrome stone inlay in an impressionistic geometrical style with curved angles. Four panels separated by a cross inlaid in gold mosaic have designs on a cross theme.
Access[]
According to the Diocese, the church is open:
Weekdays 7:00 to 12:00, 16:30 to 19:30;
Sundays and Solemnities 7:30 to 13:00 and 17:00 to 20:00.
Liturgy[]
Church[]
Mass is celebrated (parish website October 2017):
Weekdays 8:00, 19:00;
Sundays and Solemnities 8:30, 10:30, 12:00, 19:00.
Subsidiary chapel[]
According to the Diocesen, the parish maintains a subsidiary Mass centre at the chapel of the Casa di Cura Villa Mafalda at Via Monte delle Gioie 5, which just off the Via Salaria in the Trieste quarter.
This is a private clinic, but public Masses are celebrated in the chapel and are advertised. There is one on Saturday at 17:00, and another on Sunday at 07:45.
The chapel has no separate architectural identity.