Exploring Form Space & Light
In Modern Church Architecture In Italy

Edge of Humanity Magazine

7 hours ago

Photographer Ernesto Fiorentino is an Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the project ‘The tour of the seven (modern) churches’. To see Ernesto’s body of work, click on any photograph.

Chiesa della Sacra Famiglia — interior detail — Salerno, Italy — Architect: Paolo Portoghesi

Santuario Nazionale a Maria Madre e Regina (Monte Grisa) — detail — Trieste, Italy — Architect: Antonio Guacci

Basilica di San Giovanni Bosco — Rome, Italy — Architect: Gaetano Rapisardi

This photographic project grew out of my interest in modern architecture. In Italy, where the historical heritage is a beautiful yet unavoidable presence, looking for modern architecture can often mean searching for individual exceptions within a landscape deeply shaped by the past. It was through this search that I began to take an interest in contemporary churches.

I found it “curious” that religious architecture (the expression of an institution usually associated with tradition) is also one of the areas where contemporary architectural language finds greater freedom to express itself.

What form does the sacred take when it is entrusted to the language of contemporary architecture? A church is not simply a building, but a space intended to suggest an immaterial dimension, one that can be evoked through form, space, emptiness and, above all, light.

Chiesa delle Suore della Carità e dell’Immacolata Concezione di Ivrea — detail — Rome, Italy — Architect: Silvio Galizia

Cappella Loyola — Rome, Italy — Architect: Ignazio Lo Manto

Chiesa del Giubileo — detail — Rome, Italy — Architect: Richard Meier

Chiesa di San Pio da Pietrelcina — Rome, Italy — Architects: Studio Anselmi & Associati

This work does not come from a religious motivation, nor is it intended as a survey of contemporary religious architecture. Rather, it is a personal journey through these places, photographed over different years and at different moments. My gaze moves from the building to the detail, from exterior to interior, from matter to emptiness.

The title of the project comes from a tradition that was widespread in medieval Rome. The Tour of the Seven Churches allowed Romans to experience a pilgrimage while remaining “close to home,” visiting seven churches and asking forgiveness for their sins. Over time, “to make the tour of the seven churches” entered everyday language, not only in Rome, as an expression for a long and winding journey—much like, in my case, the photographic path I have taken through some contemporary forms of sacred architecture.

Chiesa del Santo Volto — Turin, Italy — Architect: Mario Botta

Chiesa di Santa Maria Madre del Redentore — Rome, Italy — Architect: Pierluigi Spadolini

Chiesa dei Santi Cornelio e Cipriano — Calcata, Italy — Architects: Paolo Portoghesi

Cappella Loyola — detail — Rome, Italy — Architect: Lo Manto

Ernesto Fiorentino was born in Sorrento, Italy, in 1971 and has lived and worked in Rome for over twenty years. After a long period of photographic research and exploration, he recently decided to pursue photography professionally. His work ranges from fine art to architectural photography, with a consistent focus on composition, the relationship between people and space, and the ability of images to suggest meanings beyond what they show. His work has been selected, exhibited, and published in Italy and abroad, receiving recognition both nationally and internationally.

All images and text © Ernesto Fiorentino