Gesù Sommo Eterno Sacerdote is a mid 20th century former hospital chapel at Via Francesco Marchetti Selvaggiani 22 in the Aurelio quarter. The street is private and is a cul-de-sac, so the chapel is easily overlooked.
The dedication is to Jesus Christ, under his aspect of Eternal High Priest.
Do not confuse with Gesù Sommo ed Eterno Sacerdote.
History[]
According to info.roma, the chapel was built for something called the Istituto San Raffaele Arcangelo. Was this the ancestor of the present hospital of the same name on the Via delle Pisana?
The complex looks mid 20th century.
The premises are now part of a residential care home (casa assistenti) of some sort called Domus Johannea which has a poor Internet presence.
However, Mass is still celebrated here on occasion and the Diocese lists the chapel as dependent on the parish of Santi Protomartiri Romani.
Appearance[]
The institution is an uninteresting four-storey edifice on the plan of an L. The chapel is a separate building, attached to one end.
The plan has two elements, a rectangular nave and a three-sided apse of the same width amounting to half a hexagon.
The edifice is one storey high, in white concrete with a flat roof protected by a low parapet formed by the tops of the walls. A very low hexagonal dome is fitted into the angles of the apse, and this consists of six shallowly pitched sectors in a dark grey composition, which meet at a glass lantern finial. There is hardly any drum, just very thin window strips which are recessed slightly.
The two far diagonal walls of the apse each have a huge rectangular window. The nave has a thin vertical window strip occupying each of its far corners where it meets the apse, and five matching strips in its right hand wall which are well spaced and which do not reach the ground or parapet. The left hand wall has five of these, because the lower left hand side of the nave abuts the main building of the complex.