santuario, San Vincenzo Ferreri

Perched on a high, panoramic ridge, this church complex is a place apart: almost isolated, surrounded by broad, wooded green space. The Santuario di San Vincenzo Ferreri is actually three contiguous buildings, a convent, a church and an oratory, forming a single, uninterrupted architectural front. The neoclassical façade is simple and elegant, dominating a wide parvis, with the campanile and smaller conventual buildings extending seamlessly to either side.

Inside, the longitudinal plan is single-naved, leading to an apsidal sanctuary with a barrel-vaulted, lunette ceiling. The decorative scheme is rich: an architectural partition of single-order pilasters with fanciful capitals alternates with side chapels beneath round arches. A projecting trabeation runs above the pilasters, serving as the springing point for the vault. The sanctuary is introduced by a sort of triumphal arch with a lowered, polycentric profile, integrated into the nave’s architectural order. The whole is a curious, harmonious blend of restraint and elaboration, typical of later churches built upon older foundations.

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