Cappella dell'Ospedale San Filippo Neri is a 20th century Fascist-era hospital chapel at Via Giovanni Martinotti 20. This street parallels the Via Trionfale here, and is in the Trionfale suburban district.
The dedication of the hospital is to St Philip Neri.
History[]
This has been one of the major hospitals of Rome since its foundation in 1940 as part of the Fascist government's modernisation of the city's health-care facilities.
Apparently the Camillians were involved here in from 1949 and administered the chapel, but this has not been the case for some time. "Info.roma" states that they left in 1956.
There was a major expansion of the hospital in the Sixties, and in 1996 it was given independence from the local health authority owing to the national importance of its specialist units.
The locality is still mainly rural, and the hospital has its own train station called San Filippo Neri after it.
Appearance[]
The original 1940 complex has red brick trim, and this distinguishes it from the mightily ugly Sixties additions to the north.
This is a very large single building, arranged in the plan of a butterfly with a central range running back from the main entrance and side ranges enclosing large triangular courtyards on each side. There are five or six storeys.
The chapel is at the end of the central range, and is mostly part of the fabric. However, the circular sanctuary apse protrudes from the end and is surprisingly embellished. The fabric is in red brick, a tall half-cylinder with a flat roof having a parapet. There are five very tall vertical strip windows with white frames, and the central one is narrower and in the form of a cross.
The apse is provided with a double peristyle of white concrete piers. Six tall inner piers support a semi-circular concrete beam at the level of the roof behind the parapet, and this beam also melds with the radial framework beams of the roof which jut from the fabric. Another six shorter piers stand to support another semi-circular beam of wider radius but about five-eighths of the height, and this beam is connected to the inner piers by horizontal beams of the same thickness as the piers.
This is a very Fascist-looking, vaguely Classical piece of architectural design.