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Marko Rupnik says: “The world is understood only in light. Things, objects, nature and man himself are only understood in the light. According to the Creator and His Wisdom, the truth is the light of the world and all that exists. But man cannot look at the light. It would be too much! The source of light is behind and beyond. Here are the colors. The experience of light is the colors festival!”Yes, the colors. Marko Rupnik says: “When matter exudes light, it tinges with color. The colors testify the world soul. Things are alive and the universe has its own heart. The color is the flesh of the world. The color is related to the universe matter. The universe is colorful. In a certain sense, it is the color. But is the light that makes us seeing it. The color and the light: they are an indivisible unity.”

Father Marko Ivan Rupnik is a Slovenian Jesuit (born November 28, 1954), based in Rome, whose mosaics adorn churches at Fatima and Lourdes, in Madrid, Rome or Milan, in Cluj-Napoca Romania as well as the Pope’s private chapel in Vatican.The website for the Centro Aletti displays him and his workshop`s works in abundance

The new pilgrimage church of Padre Pio at San Giovanni Rotondo in southern Italy is crowned by one of the largest church roofs in Europe, realised under direction of the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. For the project, only natural, durable materials were used.

The immense roof skin, for example, was finished entirely in pre-patinated copper. In total, 19,500 m2 were used for the complex design. The supporting structure consists of a combination of wood and the Apulian limestone typical of the region.

Reminiscent of the protective function of a giant snail shell, the bright green copper roof nestles between the hills of the Gargano promontory. The impressive stylistic expression of the building, the innovative use of the material and the masterly execution of the complicated roof form have placed a distinctive symbol in the environs. In contrast to the other buildings in the immediate area, which have largely arisen in a short time span in response to the steady increase in the numbers of visitors to the village, the copper church roof creates a direct and striking link to the fundamental purpose of this place: to enable pilgrims from all over the world to worship together here.The Capuchin monastery at San Giovanni Rotondo was the place where Padre Pio di Pietrelcina lived until his death in 1968. The charismatic friar is venerated especially in Italy and became well known among believers throughout the world after his canonisation by Pope John Paul II in 2002. San Giovanni Rotondo is now visited by more than seven million people every year. The increasing demand for overnight accommodation resulted in a building boom that was unique in the region: within two years, 120 hotels came into being on the slopes of this mountain village. The architect team of the Renzo Piano Building Workshop therefore encountered a place full of the inevitable contradictions between religion and commerce, a situation reflected in the existing architecture. After the first visits to San Giovanni Rotondo, the Workshop tackled the question in earnest of how to harmonise a quiet form of piety with the existing conditions and the masses of visitors expected. Seven thousand people were to be seated under the church roof, and a total of around ten thousand people should be able to assemble there.

The Padre Pio Pilgrimage Church was built in devotion to the Saint Pio of Pietrelcina and dedicated on July 1, 2004

The Padre Pio Pilgrimage ChurchOutside Altar

The wide open entrance area is formed by the largest stone arch of the support structure; with a 50 m span and a height of 16 m, the largest supporting arch ever built of stone.

The Padre Pio Pilgrimage ChurchEntrance in the Basilica

The supporting structure consists of two intermeshing rows of Apricena stone arches arranged in a circle, a total of 21, that form an inner and an outer ring with the arches of the outer ring representing scaled-down copies of the inner ones. The arches of the inner ring originate in the centre of the three-quarter circle, where the altar is located.

Since the spans of the arches steadily decrease, with the decreasing radius of the circle, a spiral shape is created that is reminiscent of a snail’s shell. The radial structure brings the assembly as close as possible to the altar. The cost of the building, which took 10 years to design and build, has been met entirely by contributions from the faithful

The arched entrance simultaneously serves as a single window; the interior otherwise remains in semi-darkness, only a light well above the altar sets a dramatic accent. On the concave cambered floor, the rows of seats run around the altar in ascending terraced rings.

The visitors experience the mass as if in a Greek theatre. Adequate warmth is ensured by a small on-site combined heating and power system in the basement, where, on a useful area of 11,000 m2, nearly half the size of the enormous square, are also located the crypt, chapels, confessionals and several modern administrative and event rooms.

Rampa della chiesa inferiore San Giovanni Rotondo

Saint Francis proclaims the Gospel to the Sultan

Lower crypt of the church of St. Pio of Pietrelcina

The eye-catcher here is the enormous supporting wall of the square, along which the visitors are guided up the slope and which at its highest point rises to 25 metres. Here, at a bend in the road, the supporting pillars of the wall form a tower containing a dozen giant bells. Further up the slope, the height of the wall continuously declines until, at its end, you reach the forecourt of the monastery where the vertex of the triangular square also lies. Via the downward sloping square, you come to the entrance of the church, beside which a 40 m high stone cross towers.

Sound: Rachmaninov - Vespers op. 37 p03. Blessed is the Man ; p12.The Greater Gloria; The Choral Arts Society of Washington (conductor Mstislav Rostropovich)

Text and pictures: InternetCopyright: All the images belong to their authors

Presentation: Sanda Foişoreanuwww.slideshare.net/michaelasanda