Madonna del Lavoro is a 20th century Fascist-era private villa chapel at Via Francesco Scaduto 23 in the Aurelio quarter.
Name 
Edit
The dedication is to the Blessed Virgin Mary, under her title of "Our Lady of Labour".
This title is associated with the Servants of Charity, better known in Italian as the Opera Don Guanella. They have a very large complex a little distance south-west of the site of the chapel -see San Giuseppe dell’Opera Don Guanella.
History Edit
The chapel is part of a villa complex, the Villa Veschi. This was based on a 19th century farmstead, but in the 1930's Riccordo Veschi remodelled it as a country seat and included a free-standing chapel amounting to a small church edifice. The family had made their fortune manufacturing bricks and tiles in kilns just west of Vatican City.
The chapel became a subsidiary Mass centre of Sant'Ambrogio all'Aurelio when that parish was erected in 1961. The parish established a residential care home in the south part of the villa grounds (not very close to the chapel), and hence the chapel gained the same postal address of Via Francesco Scaduto 60 which causes confusion.
The city has acquired eminent domain over the property, and the eastern part of it is now a public park known as Parco Giovanni Paolo I. However, the western part including the chapel seems to be in private occupation and is not visitable.
The chapel ceased to be listed as a place of worship by the Diocese after 2014, and its present status is unclear. This change seems to be linked with the closure of the care home.
Appearance Edit
The chapel is a rectangular edifice in pink brick with a pitched and tiled roof, aligned parallel to the street behind a fairly high wall. The villa and original farmstead are beyond it, to the east.
The otherwise straightforward brick box has a shallow external chapel on each side, substantially lower than the main structure and having its own tiled roof with a triangular gable pediment. Above this are two brick pilasters in the otherwise blank side wall, and three small round-headed windows separated by the pilasters.
The façade has a single doorway, above which is a row of three round-headed windows. The triangular pediment has a wheel window in relief, painted white. The altar wall, at the other end, has the same form except that the window here is simply round, with a raised frame.
On the far right hand corner is a tower campanile, having a low tiled pyramidal cap which overhangs. Each face of the bell-chamber has two large round-headed apertures, each with a little balustrade formed from a diaper grid.
Access and liturgy Edit
None to both, apparently.
External links Edit
Info.roma web-page (The address is wrong).
