chiesa di Santa Maria Immacolata e San Giovanni Berchmans

The church was built by order of Pope Pius X between 1906 and 1909 based on a project developed by the architect Costantino Schneider and directed by the architects Francesco and Carlo Strocchi, and was solemnly consecrated by the Archbishop of Malines, Cardinal Desiré Mercier, on 19 March 1909. It was dedicated to Santa Maria Immacolata, a dogma proclaimed by Pope Pius IX (1854) and to Giovanni Berchmans, a Belgian Jesuit particularly indebted to the Immaculate, as a sign of gratitude towards the Belgian Catholics who had given a substantial economic contribution for the construction of the church. The church is a parish seat, erected by Pope Pius X on 12 March 1909 with the apostolic letter In ordinandis, and entrusted to the Giuseppini del Murialdo. Since 1969 it has been the seat of the cardinal title of the Immaculate at Tiburtino. The church is in neo-Romanesque style with neo-Gothic elements. The exterior is covered in exposed brick; the façade is salient and features, in the center, the portal with a mosaic lunette and, at the top, the circular rose window. The bell tower, inspired by that of San Marco in Venice but smaller (height 50 meters, side 9.20 meters), was added later, in 1929; it houses a concert of six bells cast by Pasqualini di Fermo. The interior is a Latin cross with three naves, with cross vaults and polychrome glass windows. The interior decoration dates back to the post-war period (1946-1954) by Mario Prayer. The pictorial decoration extends over an area of ​​over 650 m²; in the apse the triumph of the Virgin among saints and martyrs is depicted while along the nave each lunette includes two episodes of the life of the Madonna. In the center of the lunettes, under the large windows, there are frescoes in black and white tempera, niches with false bas-relief statues representing Marian allegories with the virtues of the Madonna and female biblical figures; while, on the back wall around the central rose window in polychrome glass, the triumph of faith and the glorification of St. Pius X, who accompanies souls to heaven under the guidance of the Virgin, are described. Many characters depicted in the decorations of the transept and the central nave are taken from photographs of men and women who fell under the bombings of July 19, 1943. On the choir behind the main altar there is the pipe organ, built in 1925 by Zeno Fedeli and later electrified, which has 17 registers on two manuals and a pedal