Gesù Bambino a Sacco Pastore is a mid 20th century parish church with a postal address at Via Campi Flegrei 40, which is near the Nomentana train station in the Monte Sacro quarter. The church entrance is on the Via Val Chisone, round the back.
The dedication is to the Child Jesus.
History[]
The parish was erected in 1957 by dividing that of Santi Angeli Custodi. The church was designed by Tullio Rossi, and abandoned unfinished in 1959. Only the crypt was built, and this has had to serve the parish since then.
Exterior[]
Rossi obviously intended a large basilical church, with the crypt under the central nave and sanctuary. None of this was begun
The crypt-church is not underground, but is in an excavated cavity which means that its roof is at street level. This means that there is no civic profile.
The plan involves a single nave followed by a trapezoidal sanctuary with a shallow rectangular apse. There are four rectangular side spaces, two off the nave near the front end and two flanking the nave at the start of the sanctuary.
The side walls are in concrete and brick, and the roof is flat. A large lantern in the shape of a Maltese cross is over the nave, and a row of four small square skylights is just in front of the sanctuary.
The frontage is occupied by the parish offices, which are a set of rather grim red brick blocks. Interestingly, the bricks are thin in the ancient style and presumably the proposed basilica would have had these for its infill walls.
The entrance is on a little piazza occupying a corner of the junction of Via Campi Flegrei and Via Val di Fiemme. An image of the Child Jesus is in a wall-case to the right of the otherwise unadorned doorway.
Round the back, the actual church entrance is marked by a metal railing arch carrying the name of the parish.
Interior[]
Images of the interior are lacking online. Apparently it is of little interest. The roof is supported by deep concrete slab-beams, the lower edges of which angle downwards before meeting the side walls. This means that the roof is over-engineered, but it would have supported the floor of the church above.
Liturgy[]
Mass is celebrated (November 2017):
Weekdays 7:30, 8:30, 11:00, 18:00;
Sundays and Solemnities 8:30, 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 19:00.
There is a reduced schedule in summer.