San Gaetano is a later 20th century parish and convent church at Via Tuscania 12, near where the Via Flaminia Nuova and the Via Cassia Nuova diverge in the quarter of Tor di Quinto. This is in the north of the city. The postal address is Via Poggio Martino 1, which are the convent and parish offices in a separate building.
The dedication is to St Cajetan.
History[]
The parish was set up in 1962 and put into the care of the Theatines, whose founder was St Cajetan.
The church was completed in 1979, the architect being Giorgio Pacini.
Exterior[]
The church is based on a circular plan, comprising the nave and sanctuary together. This core is surrounded by radial ancillary zones of differing widths and heights. These comprise an entrance lobby, a ferial chapel, the sacristy behind the altar and two connecting ambulatories wrapping round the sides of the church.
The structure has a reinforced concrete frame, and the ancillary zone walls are in the same material which is left raw. However, the curved wall of the central church is in squared tufo (?) blocks above the flat ancillary zone roofs. A quarter of this cylindrical wall at the lower left hand side of the church has a slightly greater radius than the rest.
The roof is almost flat, having eight triangular pitches at a very low slope and meeting at a circular skylight. This skylight is surrounded by a steel crown painted red, which bears a finial of a cross on mountains which derives from the heraldry of Pope Pius XII. The eaves of the roof are deep and overhanging and are in dull red, and below them is a window strip running round the church. The overall effect is rather like a pill-box with a loose lid.
The entrance is perpendicular to the radius of the church, and has a large horizontal floating concrete canopy bearing the name of the parish on its fascia.
Interior[]
The interior has eight reinforced concrete piers supporting the roof, which are mostly exposed in the interior wall as plane surfaces. The wall interiors are otherwise in a pale yellow,.
Three of the eight sectors on the left have a gallery over the ambulatory, and here the piers are free-standing.
Contrary to what you might expect, the church does not have a central altar but one in the traditional place. In other words, the layout is as you would find in a normal rectangular building.
The roof is impressive. It has eight radial steel beams converging on the skylight, and these are connected by circumferential steel trusses. In between these the roof is planked in wood.
Access[]
According to the Diocese, the church is open from 7:30 to 19:30 daily.
Liturgy[]
Church[]
Mass is celebrated:
Weekdays 9:30, 18:30;
Sundays and Solemnities 8:30, 10:30, 12:00, 18:30.
There is Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament on First Thursdays from 10:00 to 11:00, and on First Fridays from 19:00 to 20:00.
Cappella della Clinica Nuova Villa Claudia[]
The parish maintains one external Mass centre, at a medical clinic called the Nuova Villa Claudia at Via Flaminia Nuova 280. The chapel has no architectural identity.
Mass is celebrated here on Sundays and Solemnities at 10:00.