Chiesa di San Barnaba, Roma

On Via Giovanni Maggi in Prenestino-Labicano, this is the Catholic Church of Saint Barnabas. Its name preserves that of a vanished medieval church once found near Porta Maggiore. Tullio Rossi designed the present building, which rose during nineteen fifty-six and nineteen fifty-seven.

It belongs to the modern movement, a style made for its own era rather than dressed in borrowed historical forms. Notice the tall brick facade, where a pillared porch stands before the entrance and windows divide the wall above. The church serves as a parish, entrusted to the Pavonian religious congregation.

Inside, the basilica plan opens into aisles beneath arches and exposed roof trusses. In the apse, Igino Cupelloni’s mosaic from nineteen sixty-six gathers major Christian leaders of that period, including Popes John the Twenty-Third and Paul the Sixth, alongside Patriarch Athenagoras and Archbishop Ramsey.