Santa Maria Assunta all'Idroscalo is a later 20th century public chapel located at Via della Carlinga 97. This is in the extreme west of Lido di Ostia, on the south side of the estuary of the Tiber just before it reaches the sea. The quarter is Lido di Ostia Ponente.
The dedication is to the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the aspect of her Assumption.
History[]
The actual locality is called L'Idroscalo, which means "Seaplane Station" since there was one here before the Second World War to which a road was built in 1938 (the present Via dell'Idroscalo).
In the Sixties a few families built holiday homes in what was then mostly open land at the mouth of the Tiber. However, the situation then ballooned out of control with illegal squatter settlement of migrants in what became a shanty town containing about five hundred families. The chapel was erected in response to the social deprivation which resulted.
The chapel and an adjacent social centre was an initiative of the Fraternità dell'Incarnazione, a new religious society founded in 1975 in the diocese of Pescia.
The little suburb is in an isolated and sensitive location, separated from the rest of Lido di Ostia by port facilities and a nature reserve. The illegal nature of much of the building has led to pressure for demolition, especially as regards the need to extend the port. In response to both the isolation and the perceived hostility, the inhabitants have promoted a civic identity rather uncommon in Roman suburbs of this size, and this is marked by a procession in honour of the Assumption on 15 August. This begins and ends at the chapel, and after a few years' abeyance was restored in 2015 and 2016.
The chapel is dependent on the parish of San Vincenzo de’ Paoli a Lido di Ostia, and is not listed by the Diocese as belonging to the Fraternità any more.
This is the westernmost place of worship in Rome.
Appearance[]
The chapel is a very basic edifice, being a prefabricated hut of four bays. The walls are of vertical concrete panels inserted into slot-piers, and the roof is pitched and tiled. The façade, which is the only part rendered in white, has a shallow gabled and tiled canopy on wooden struts.
The interior is also very simple, in white but neat and well kept.