Cappella della Casa di Riposo Roma 3 is a mid 20th century retirement home chapel located at Via Gioacchino Ventura 60. This is in the territory of the Trionfale quarter, but is up a dead-end street off the Via della Pineta Sacchetti which runs down the east side of the suburb of Primavalle.
History 
Edit
In the mid 20th century the municipality provided several very large purpose-built retirement homes for elderly people lacking the ability and resources to take care of themselves. Each of these was to serve a territorial catchment area, hence the numeric designation of this one.
In recent years the running of these homes has been sub-contracted to various private firms, and so have been referred to by differing names which (of course) change when the firms do.
The chapel seems to host occasional liturgical events open to the public.
In October 2018, the Diocese appointed an expatriate Venezuelan priest called Don Albert Daniel Jaimes Ramirez as chaplain here for a year.
Appearance Edit
Layout Edit
The Casa di Riposo is a very large complex consisting of two large three-storey blocks, each containing a completely enclosed courtyard. These are aligned perpendicularly to each other in an L, with the angle of the L taken up by a linking range consisting of four conjoined single-storey ranges around a third courtyard. This is fronted by a third, smaller rectangular three-storey block.
The impressively large chapel is joined onto this linking range by a further single-storey entrance wing.
The plan of the chapel consists of a chamfered square, that is a square with the corners cut off thus creating an irregular although symmetric octagon.
Fabric Edit
The chapel's appearance is very Fifties. It consists of an exposed white reinforced concrete frame, with pink brick infill. Each of the seven exposed side walls shows the vertical concrete piers embedded in the brickwork, and has a deep window strip below the octagonal main roof support beam at the roofline. The piers cross the fenestration to reach the beam, of course.
The edifice is dominated by the roof, which is in green anodised metal sheeting resembling copper. The form is complex. Each of the long sides of the octagon is occupied by a lunette gable, filled with clear glass fenestration matching the window strip below. Each of the short sides has a triangular hip. From the top angle of each hip a narrow triangular pitch runs up steeply to a central lantern, which has a square plan.
The ridge-lines of the gable lunettes also slope up to about halfway to the lantern measured horizontally, then the ridge-line of each is continued at a slightly steeper angle to reach a corner of the lantern. This arrangement creates eight main roof pitches of an irregular quadrilateral shape. The overall effect could be described as a dome, although "pavilion" would be a better term.
The lantern is in the form of a four-sided box, shaped like a steep-sided truncated pyramid. Each side is a window. The box sides comprise concrete beams, which are extended upwards to create an open spire. However, the top three-sevenths of this spire has concrete panels filling the sides and is topped by a low pyramidal cap bearing a ball finial.
The spire was obviously intended as a campanile, although it now contains no bells.
