Terebinto, Tienda, Templo, Cuerpo

Calma. Camina cerca de las casas; no te niegues a cargar con las manos de la sombra y el sol. Ve con Sophia Andresen y otros poetas. Amanece a la reflexión sobre la arquitectura religiosa contemporánea. Solo siéntate. Se ofrecen cuatro íconos arquitectónicos: Terebinto, Tienda, Templo, Cuerpo. Déjate contemplar hasta que se forme la gran anamnesis. Ilumina las preguntas mayéuticas. Pensarás con esperanza. Y, con imaginación profética, apunta a la experiencia multisensorial. Mirad, la poética de la espacialidad (ritual, artística, lingüística, etc.) se instituirá entre la memoria y la creación, al ritmo de la pregunta anterior. Es en este camino, sapiential y sacramental, que el texto exige la atmósfera de la arquitectura religiosa. Si despojado de certezas y frivolidades conceptuales (de liturgias a eclesiologías), mejor. A diferencia de la pragmática, se atiende a la hermenéutica crítica, con casos de reforma. Diseñadas por el taller Cerejeira Fontes Arquitectos, en dinámica multidisciplinaria, nacieron las capillas Árbol de la Vida, Llena de Gracia e Inmaculada de los Seminarios Arquidiocesanos de Braga (Portugal).

Interventions in Heritage Sacred Architecture after the Second Vatican Council in Croatia

In the period of the Second Vatican Council Croatia was part of Yugoslavia. A new political system promoted an atheistic worldview. The result of that process was a hostile relationship between the Church and the official government and a profound division of the Church and the society. It resulted in very rare interventions in the field of sacred architecture. Most of the interventions occurred in the adaptations of sanctuaries after the Second Vatican Council. Most of them were reflecting the lack of co-operation between experts.The change of political system has occurred in 1990. The new democratic system brought religions freedom but the new war destabilized society again. The result is a boom in the construction of sacred buildings reflecting the crisis of that moment. In the last decade, the situation is changing due to the initiatives that bring together theologians, liturgists, architects, architectural conservators, and artists in work on sacred buildings.

Parish Churches, Patrimony of the Community or of the Diocese?

My intervention was born as a reflection on the Census of churches of Turin diocese, organized by the CEI (Italian Episcopal Conference). Through my studies, I’ve observed the case of Turin ecclesiastical heritage built in the second half of the 20th century. A great number of places of worship have changed their historical validity due to arbitrariness of choices and interventions.I’ve always supported the thesis that this religious buildings are an important patrimony for the urban history and expression of the pastoral liturgy of the diocese in Italy and that the community is fundamental to the birth and the management of a parish centre. Now I think that it is necessary to consolidate project strategies and fix best-practices to preserve the ecclesiastic heritage from everyone’s action.Generally speaking, what contemporary buildings can be part of the Church heritage? How far can priests and communities decide, independently, to intervene?

Disasters, Memory and Liturgy

Seismic events demonstrated the high level of structural vulnerability of Italian ecclesiastical heritage. This paper investigates liturgical reordering applied (or not applied) in the post-earthquake reconstruction of churches. The aim is to analyze if the tragic circumstance of a post-earthquake reconstruction has been taken as an opportunity to renovate the sacramental space as a whole, and above all, to evaluate in which way the memory of the disaster and mourning may have influenced the celebratory aspects. The paper focus on the several criteria that may support choices for churches reconstruction, with or without the assimilation of the liturgical modifications introduced by the Second Vatican Council.If fifty years later, the process of the liturgical modification continues to be problematic in churches with a high heritage or historical value, the issue is event more complex for those buildings affected by catastrophic event and where communities are wounded by traumatic event as an earthquake.

La renovación litúrgica de las iglesias en España tras el Concilio Vaticano II

A finales de los años sesenta, comenzó en todo el mundo un proceso de reforma interior de las iglesias católicas que pretendía responder a las modificaciones litúrgicas implementadas durante el Concilio Vaticano II. Cincuenta años después, el proceso sigue siendo muy problemático, especialmente en los edificios con un alto valor patrimonial.Este artículo se propone explorar los fundamentos conceptuales y legales, tanto de origen eclesiástico como civil, que han venido respaldando estas actuaciones en España, así como los procedimientos que se utilizan hoy en día para intervenir litúrgicamente en la arquitectura religiosa preconciliar. Ya que la revista ARA fue la voz más autorizada de la época en este campo, la labor divulgadora de fray José Manuel de Aguilar y sus colaboradores se utilizará como hilo conductor del texto.

Conditioning Factors in Simplification of Catholic Temples after Vatican II in Brazil

Under the influence of the liturgical reform promoted in the 20th century, Catholic temples assumed very simple characteristics, especially after the determinations of the Second Vatican Council. This simplification can be observed both in the construction of new temples and in the adaptation of others built before the period in question, causing the loss of its identity. In order to understand the simplification of these sacred spaces, we chose the case study: the renovation of Santa Maria de Campos dos Goytacazes Parish Church, located in the North of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In the architectural intervention of this sacred space, conditioning factors were identified as: impositions of the local community; priests who are unaware of ecclesiastical determinations for liturgical space; and the scarcity of architects familiar with liturgical practices and conciliar guidelines. It is necessary to consider new proposals for the use of space, particularly in the rehabilitation of sacred spaces after the Second Vatican Council.

La reutilización eclesial de las iglesias en desuso

El tema del abandono y la reutilización de iglesias redundantes o infrautilizadas involucra tanto al debate científico como a las comunidades eclesiales. Por primera vez, la institución vaticana dedicada al patrimonio cultural ha promovido una investigación entre las conferencias episcopales europeas, de Estados Unidos y de Australia, para formular directrices comunes sobre la reutilización de las iglesias en desuso. El documento final fue publicado el 17 de diciembre de 2018. La presente contribución subraya ciertos aspectos del documento: la relación entre identidad y adaptabilidad en los edificios históricos; el papel de las investigaciones históricas en la definición de las posibilidades de transformación de las iglesias en desuso; la resiliencia del patrimonio religioso; la participación de las comunidades locales y de nuevas comunidades patrimoniales en los procesos de reutilización; y la necesidad de una planificación regional en la definición de estrategias compartidas entre las comunidades eclesiales y la sociedad civil.

Más allá de la penumbra

En Italia, el tema de la adaptación de las iglesias a la reforma litúrgica es objeto d documentos oficiales de la Iglesia local, pero también es un argumento que se encuentra constantemente en el centro de atención de la opinión pública y no solo de los especialistas. Con menos conciencia, el tema de la iluminación artificial de las iglesias se considera un factor que contribuye a la adaptación de los espacios litúrgicos a la reforma conciliar. Un elemento, la iluminación artificial, que puede producir innovación operando discretamente en el contexto material del edificio en beneficio de la conservación. Se trata de un tema no sencillo, que este breve ensayo contextualiza también con la ayuda del examen de intervenciones recientes llevadas a cabo por el autor en iglesias de valor histórico y artístico.

The Post-War Reconstruction of the Ecclesiastical Building in Italy

Although we consider the Second Vatican Council the final destination of a path of renewal for the history of contemporary sacred art, it is, however, necessary to focus on its preparatory phase during the years of post-war reconstruction.Though the first impulse to this process was given with the institution of the Pontifical Central Commission for Sacred Art (PCCSA), strongly desired by Pius XI, whose purpose was to maintain «a sense of Christian art», the key figure for the formation of the artists first, and then for the complex task of directing the reconstruction works of all the ecclesiastical buildings devastated by the fury of the war, was Msgr. Giovanni Costantini, third president of the PCCSA.This contribution aims to highlight, through a comparative reading of unpublished archival sources, relating to the Abruzzo region, and consolidated literature, what were the dictates of the PCCSA regarding interventions on existing buildings and how they influenced the results that arose during the first period of reconstruction (1945-56).

Requirements, Qualities and Solutions

After the Second World War the ecclesiastical property was drastically reduced in Hungary. However, Vatican II gave an intense motivation and impulse to the spiritual-psychical revival for the communities and by this time, the preservation of the religious heritage got some statal, professional attention too. The restoration or reconstruction works were often linked with the acute interior transformations according to Vatican II. Although the Hungarian publication and interpretation of the reforms were relatively slow, still a few essential informative discussions were born. The Venice Charter (1964) also had a significant effect on the monument preservation methodology in this period. Analysing the theoretical approach of the Vatican II Constitution and Instruction a close parallelism can be identified with the architectural aspects of the Venice Charter: respect the old parts with the obviously distinguishable, new supplements, and create modern artworks with high artistic quality. The end of the paper cites some brief case studies to present the practical implementation of the directives.