San Francesco d'Assisi ai Casali di Torrevecchia is a deconsecrated mid-20th century church at Via dei Casali di Torrevecchia 52 in the Trionfale suburban zone. The locality is west of Primavalle and just south of Torresina, but not really part of either.
The dedication was to St Francis of Assisi.
History[]
The church was built in 1945, and consecrated in 1950. The latter year saw the foundation of the local parish Santa Maria della Salute, and this little edifice (Chiesetta) seems to have been the first place of worship.
Unfortunately, the choice of locality proved a bad mistake. Major suburban development confined itself to the east of the Via di Torrevecchia, and the Via dei Casali di Torrevecchia remained a dead-end country lane with few residences.
The church seems to have been deconsecrated soon after the parish obtained its permanent church in 1960, and has been a private house for some years.
Appearance[]
The building is in brick, on a rectangular plan with proportionally a rather short major axis. The style is neo-Romanesque, very old-fashioned for its period. The roof is pitched and tiled, and the walls are rendered in what has become a dirty pale brown.
There is a structurally separate entrance bay, slightly narrower and lower with its own pitched and tiled roof. The apex of the gable of this is occupied by a prominent campanile or bell-cote for a single bell which is quite decorative. The single bell-opening has its archivolt in red tile, and above an incurved gable bears a ball finial sitting on a flat tile. The sides of the bell-cote have a pair of buttresses with sloping tops.
Both roofs have overhanging eaves, including the front gable where the eaves are interrupted by the bell-cote.
The entrance bay has an open loggia with five identical arched portals, three in the front and one at each side. These are separated by square piers in naked red brick each with a flat projecting impost tile in lieu of a capital.
The walling above the arches is now blank, except for a shallow round-headed niche below the bell-cote. This used to contain a majolica statue of St Francis, which was smashed out when the church was abandoned (some of the blue background remains).
Originally, below this niche was painted a ribbon held by two angels. This read: D.O.M, in hon. S. Francesco Ass. A.D. MCMXLV.