Chiesa di S.Maria della Fontana

This is a church that wears its neo-Romanesque revival with a straight face and a certain flair. Facing the Piazza dell’Incoronazione, the brick facade rises in a clean, salient profile, its two orders rigorously organised. The lower register is a lesson in rhythmic geometry: pilasters with pierced stone capitals support blind arcades, a central mosaic lunette shows the Virgin and Child, and the whole portal sits within an aedicule borne on brackets. Flanking it are two round-arched windows.

Above, the second order is dominated by a twelve-petal rose window, its spokes formed by tiny columns. Below this, a three-light window is set within a larger, decorated stone arch, itself lodged in an arcade of three bays supported by paired columns. The effect is one of layered, considered ornament, a building that wants to be seen as serious architecture, and largely succeeds.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.