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Cappella del "Highlands Institute" is a mid 20th century college chapel at Viale della Scultura 15 in the EUR.

This chapel is private, but there is a good view of it from the Via Laurentina to the east.

History[]

The school was built in 1956, for English-speaking expatriates. However, it is now run by the Legionaries of Christ and is a flourishing institution catering for a wide age range.

The Legionaries have their Roman base at their Pontifical College -see Cappella del Pontificio Collegio Internazionale Maria Mater Ecclesiae.

Appearance[]

The chapel was built in 1956, and is in an unusual style for this period in Rome.

The plan is dodecahedronal or twelve-sided, and the fabric consists of a reinforced concrete frame with red brick infill. The twelve side walls are in blank brick, separated by exposed thin concrete piers at the corners and bounded at top and bottom by a pair of ring-beams. The lower one is of the same thickness as the piers, but the upper one is thicker.

The main chapel stands on a ground-level crypt, and the thick concrete roof of this (also providing the floor of the main chapel) has its sides left exposed exteriorly below the lower ring beam. It is supported at its edges by three concrete piers in each of the twelve faces.

Above the upper ring beam are twelve short concrete piers at the corners, which are the main supports for the conical roof. Each of these has an outwardly diagonal strut supporting the deeply overhanging concrete eaves of the roof. The latter is a steep cone in grey geometric tiles, the sectors bounded by twelve concrete rafters meeting at a low dodecahedronal drum lantern, formed of twelve short concrete piers supporting a very flat conical concrete cap.

In between the roof support piers and above the upper main ring beam, each side has a low concrete infill wall topped by a tall strip of stained glass tucked in under the eaves.

Unusually, the campanile is on top of the crowning lantern. It is a concrete open concrete frame formed by four tall piers forming a truncated pyramid with a steep angle, on top of which is a little pyramid of lower slope bearing a ball and cross finial.

External links[]

Official diocesan web-page

Info.roma web-page

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