L’architettura per il culto di Carlo Maria e Clemente Busiri Vici: caratteri evolutivi di matrice neomedievale (1885-1935)

Abstract

The proposed contribution is an excerpt from the in-depth research conducted during the PhD program in History of Architecture
and also includes some graphic and documentary materials, sometimes unpublished. Rome’s transition to the capital of
Italy made it necessary, with the construction of new districts born from residential and institutional needs, to erect various
places of worship, which often exhibit a morphological articulation of medieval derivation.
The aim is to deepen the understanding of certain churches built in Rome by Carlo Maria Busiri Vici (1856-1925) and later by
his son Clemente (1887-1965). In these churches, one can trace the evolutionary characteristics of an architectural discourse
that, in response to the suggestions of Popes Pius X and Pius XI – at first subtle, then increasingly pressing – addresses the
cultural debate surrounding the style to be adopted for the construction of new modern sacred buildings. The programmatic guidelines of the clergy, anchored in a historicist approach, take form in the work of the two Busiri Vici, who
interpret, without too much rupture or ambiguity, the evolutionary character of a national style, also supported by several
contemporary designers. The buildings under study become an architectural expression of a neo-medieval matrix, primarily
Romanesque and local in origin. Clemente Busiri Vici’s designs manage to interpret the spirit of the new century, while also
incorporating advancements in construction technology, the need to concretely meet the demands of clients, and the calls for
modernism in architecture with a Europeanist influence.

Keywords : Busiri Vici, Church, medieval, architecture and modernism.