Cappella dell'Istituo Pio XII delle Suore Mercedarie is a mid 20th century convent, school and public chapel at Via Felice Bisleri 51 in the Torrenova zone. The entrance faces the Via Pietro Wührer, but (oddly) there is no access gate from this street..
History 
Edit
The complex consists of a school and a convent, the latter being the presence at Rome of the Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (Suore Mercedarie del Santissimo Sacramento). They were founded at Mexico City in 1912, and have their headquarters there.
The chapel is a 1950's construction, and is large. It now also performs the function of an external Mass centre for the parish of San Gaudenzio a Torre Nova.
Appearance Edit
This is a two-storey edifice with a ground-level crypt. Structurally there are seven bays, followed by a very shallow triangular apse. This and the left hand side wall adjoin the two-storey convent, with the four-storey school block behind to the left.
The fabric is in reinforced concrete. The bays are separated by concrete framework piers containing recessed drainpipes, but the piers at the corners are simply square. These piers support four beams forming a strongly overhanging cornice, and on this is the gabled roof. A V-beam runs between each pair of side piers.
The side walls have a zig-zag plan. For each bay there is a wall panel with a shallow outward angle, framed by thin recessed strips adjoining the exposed piers. At the top the panel is triangular, and in between this angle and the roof cornice is a window which copies the angle of the panel below.
The entrance façade has three of these panel arrangements, two like the side wall ones but the central one occupied by the entrance. Since the chapel is in the second storey, the large entrance door (filling the entire width of the central panel and reaching almost to the window above) is accessed via a pair of staircases which stand on concrete piers. Each staircase has three flights, the first being angled inwards. The second flight is longitudinal, while the third runs up the façade to a little landing in front of the entrance.
The last pier on the right hand side, next to the apse, is continued upwards as one of two piers forming the campanile. The other pier is free-standing. They are connected at the top to form an open bell-hanging -which at present (2016) is empty.
Liturgy Edit
Mass is celebrated on Sundays at 9:00.
