Michelucci's Consolazione, Borgo Maggiore's modern church

Up in the city, plenty of the medieval look is really a 20th-century reconstruction. Down in Borgo Maggiore there’s a 20th-century building that makes no secret of it, and for me it ranks among the country’s best sights. I mean the Madonna della Consolazione sanctuary, designed by the Tuscan architect Giovanni Michelucci.

A commission that changed hands

The San Marino government lists it among the sights of Borgo Maggiore, and Wikipedia explains how it came about. The commission first went to Gino Zani, the local engineer who reshaped the look of the city, who drew up a design in the area’s traditional style. Michelucci had already been in touch with the government about something else, converting a care home, which never got off the drawing board. When the first commission lapsed, the Tuscan architect was called in and presented his design to the confraternity in 1961. Work began in February 1964 and the sanctuary was consecrated on 11 June 1967. It belongs to the Madonna della Consolazione confraternity and today also serves as a parish church, run by Borgo’s parish priest.

What it’s like inside

The plan is an irregular trapezoid, with routes wrapping round the main hall, which sits about four metres below street level. You enter through a narthex, and from there two paths split. One leads straight into the church at gallery level; the other follows the forecourt down a covered stairway to the hall. The roof is two slopes resting on parabolic arches. It was lead to begin with and is copper today.

According to the critics Wikipedia cites, the building revisits ideas Michelucci had already tried in his famous church on the Autostrada del Sole. It doesn’t stand apart; it opens to its setting, with volumes that recall a natural space, a cave or a tent, and different paths leading to different places. The idea was a place for community, almost a small town. I’d take it slowly, going up and down both routes, because that’s where the point of it lies.

A roof that caused trouble

Water leaks through the roof appeared early and meant repairs every ten years or so. In the end, between 2012 and spring 2013, the copper covering was replaced completely, following the archive drawings of the original building site. In 2016 Pope Francis granted a Jubilee Year for the 50th anniversary of the consecration, opening on 19 November 2016 and closing on 26 November 2017.

Fitting it in

I haven’t found any published visiting hours. As it’s still a parish church, the sensible thing is to go between services and keep your voice down. The easy way down is the cable car, every quarter of an hour from 07:45, €4 single or €7 return, and while you’re there you can see the Piazza Grande and its clock tower. On Thursday mornings there’s a market too. For the full contrast, head back up to the Basilica of Saint Marinus, neoclassical and 19th-century, and compare two very different ideas of a church.