Madonna del Lavoro is a 20th century Fascist-era private villa chapel at Via Francesco Scaduto 23 in the Aurelio quarter.
Name[]
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[]
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[]
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, and the main entrance faces south.
The edifice has an internal entrance loggia, entered through three large arches, the central one being slightly larger than the other two, and a pair of plain side arches. The brick archivolts of the main arcade are slightly recessed, and each springs from a pair of Tuscan Doric columns on high stone plinths. The two outer columns abut brick corner piers, but the four other ones form two pairs separating the arches.
The façade has two storeys. Above the central loggia arch is a large marble dedication tablet, and above that is a string course. The second storey has four round-headed windows, the central two paired and all having brick frames and sills in slight relief. The pediment contains a rose window of six petals, inset within a raised stone ring frame which is decorated with carving.
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 string course of the façade runs around the edifice, interrupted by the chapels which are each flanked by a further pair of small round-headed windows.
The altar end has a single doorway, above which is a row of three round-headed windows. The triangular pediment here also has a window, except that it is simply round, with a brick frame and no tracery.
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 deep balustrade formed from a diaper grid in terracotta. Below in each of the three free faces is a recessed clock face.
To the south of the chapel is a castellated brick kiosk set into the boundary wall, and on the side of this is a panel in majolica tiles which depicts Our Lady of Work.
Access and liturgy[]
None to both, apparently.
External links[]
Info.roma web-page (The address is wrong).