San Corbiniano

San Corbiniano is a 21st century parish and titular church at Via Carlo Orff 12 in the suburb of Infernetto, south-east of Ostia Antica in the Castel di Decima district.

The dedication is to St Corbinian, a missionary bishop in Bavaria in the 8th century.

History[]

The parish was originally dedicated to San Guglielmo al Laurentino (St William), and was erected in 1989.

Its dedication was changed in 2008, when construction began of a new church. The latter was completed in March 2011, and was made titular on its completion. The architect was Umberto Riva.

The present cardinal is Reinhard Marx.

Exterior[]

The church is part of a range of social services buildings, and occupies the south end of the complex. With its ancillary accommodation, it occupies a triangular plan, faced on the street side by a long screen wall. The entrance is at the north end of this.

Within the triangle, the actual church has three design units. First comes an entrance atrium, a small triange fitting into the tip of the larger one. Then the nave, which is rectangular, and finally the sanctuary which is fitted onto the far short side of the rectangle of the nave.

Most of the exterior surfaces are in smooth concrete of a very light yellowish grey hue, but some are in dark grey.

The entrance block is lower than the nave. The entrance itself is a rectangular portal, slightly recessed and with two large dark grey rectangular tablets occupying either side. These have a dedicatory inscription: D[eo] O[ptimo] M[aximo] in honorem Sancti Corbiniani, Benedictus P[a]p[a] XVI A[nno] D[omini] MMXI dicavit. Over is a horizontal floating canopy in dark grey.

The rectangle of the church nave touches the screen wall to the left of the entrance, and where it does the wall is given a dark grey coping on either side for a distance. The corner of the nave above this, and the wall below, are given strips in the same colour which together create a cross motif.

The nave is in light grey, and has a roof which slopes down towards the sanctuary. Two very thin window strips form a large cross on the wall facing the entrance, but otherwise the walls are unadorned. On the side wall near the left hand corner are attached two dark grey vertical beams, and on the roof just by these rise two further parallel beams which taper towards their tops. These form the prominent campanile, in dark grey and with the bells hanging in a vertical row in between the beams.

The triangular sanctuary is all in dark grey panelling, and is much higher than the nave where they join. At the top it has a circular skylight which throws light onto the main altar.

Interior[]

The interior wall and ceiling surfaces are in the same light grey as the exterior. The flat ceiling, with porthole light fittings, slopes slightly upwards either side from a seam along its major axis where there is a long prism of a light fitting like a Toblerone bar. There is quite a steep slope to this ceiling from the entrance towards the sanctuary, and the effect can be oppressive.

The triangular sanctuary is high, lit from above. Behind the altar is a long free-standing screen wall in yellow, fitted as a shallow V into the angle of the back wall. This is one of the few spots of colour in the church. Above is a large wooden crucifix.

The church has a figurative bronze statue of its patron saint in patinated bronze, accompanied by his pet bear.