Cappella dei Farebenefratelli is a later 20th century convent chapel at Via della Nocetta 263 in the Gianicolense suburban zone.
History[]
The chapel belongs to the Generalate (headquarters) of the Hospitallers of St John of God (nicknamed Fatebenefratelli). They have been in Rome since 1584, when they settled on the Tiber Island and founded a hospital next to the church of San Giovanni Calibita. This hospital survives to the present day. Both it and the religious order were named after St John of God (the hospital is now the Ospedale San Giovanni Calabita).
In 1953, the Order founded a new hospital in Tor di Quinto -see Cappella dell'Ospedale San Pietro Fatebenefratelli.
In 1955, the Collegio Internazionale San Giovanni di Dio was founded on the initiative of the then Master General of the Order, as a place for training in "spirituality and missionology" those responsible for the formation of candidates joining the Order.
In 1961, the Order entered into a project to build new premises for the Collegio. The architects were Domenico Virgili and Giancarlo Nale, and the work was completed in 1963.
There seems to be reticence about what actually happened to the Collegio, but some time subsequently it was shut down and the premises became the Order's international headquarters.
Appearance[]
The convent is in a quiet location immediately to the west of the Villa Doria Pamphilj, just off the Via Aurelia Antica. The convent itself is of no interest, having two parallel rectangular blocks of different sizes, connected by an enclosed corridor. The separate chapel has its entrance off the latter.
The chapel, in contrast, has an interesting form. It starts with a tall regular hexagonal nave, with a frame in reinforced concrete with red brick infill. The concrete beams and piers are left exposed. The walls are blank, except for a window strip at the top of each just under the roofline.
The roof is made up of five pitched triangular sectors in a dull red composition, separated by gullies and meeting at a grey conical spirelet.
However, the far sector of the hexagon is missing and the sanctuary roof is inserted into its space in the plan. The sanctuary is three and two half sides of a further hexagon, with one side forming the far wall of the sanctuary, two diagonal walls occupying full sides of the hexagon and two short walls joining halfway along the far diagonal walls of the octagon. Hence, the sanctuary has the form of a very large apse wrapping around the octagon in the plan. Its walls are blank brick again, but with no window strips. instead, at the top of the far wall is a large trapezoidal window tucked under the sanctuary roof. The latter is a triangular sector, joining the spirelet at its tip but with a lower pitch slope than the nave sectors.
A similar arrangement to the sanctuary is provided at the entrance, where a low five-sided entrance bay hugs the front three sides of the hexagonal nave. The far walls of this, abutting the nave, are parallel. A pair of covered corridors runs from the far corners to the sanctuary, along the sides of the nave.