Basilica Parrocchiale di Santa Maria della Salute a Primavalle

It is located in the Primavalle district, in piazza Alfonso Capecelatro; the parish of the same name and the cardinal's title of Santa Maria della Salute in Primavalle insist on it.
The Primavalle suburb sprang up between the then suburbs Aurelio and Trionfale from 1937 onwards to accommodate some 7,000-8,000 Romans who had had to leave their homes in the city's historic centre following the demolitions ordered by the Fascist government. The urban planning project was entrusted to the architect Giorgio Guidi and, among the buildings of particular importance and public utility, included the construction of a church at the end of the main artery of the suburb (today's Via Federico Borromeo).

The planning of the place of worship (which flanked the only other church in the area, that of St. Mary of the Assumption and St. Joseph, belonging to the Opera Don Calabria) took place in 1949; the following year, the adjoining convent of the Franciscan friars of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis was opened, strongly desired by the Minister General Giovanni Enrico Boccella, T. O.R. (who died in 1992, and whose mortal remains lie in the church, below the altar of St Anthony) and, with the decree of the Cardinal Vicar Francesco Marchetti Selvaggiani Inter plures vicos of 30 September 1950, the new parish of Santa Maria della Salute was erected and given to them in care of souls.
The construction of the parish church lasted until 1958. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, it was adorned with paintings, mosaics and polychrome stained-glass windows, mostly donated by Canadian Catholics.

The church was consecrated on 18 March 1960 by Cardinal Pro-Vicar for the diocese of Rome Luigi Traglia; two days later it was visited by Pope John XXIII. In 1969 the presbyteral area was rebuilt and on 29 April of the same year the cardinal title of ‘Santa Maria della Salute a Primavalle’ was created by Pope Paul VI. Pope John Paul II visited the parish on 15 November 1981.
The church stands on the northern side of piazza Alfonso Capecelatro, on an axis with via Federico Borromeo (which connects along a straight line the aforesaid square with piazza Clemente XI, where the church of Santa Maria Assunta and San Giuseppe is located) to which it forms a backdrop; the building is connected to the arcades along the perimeter of the square by the convent building on its left, while on its right, the square continues to become via Pietro Maffi. On the junction with the latter, the tall rectangular-based bell tower stands in a recessed position, entirely clad in squared stone blocks, whose cell opens on the outside with two pairs of single-lancet windows on the smaller sides, and with a single-lancet window flanked by two rectangular windows on the larger ones.

The façade, preceded by a wide flight of steps flanked by the marble statues of St. Peter (left) and St. Paul (right), is gabled and preceded by a forepart with the same wall face as the bell tower; it has three large round arches that give light to the narthex and the loggia above, and is surmounted by an attic where the bronze sculptural group Madonna and Child among angels is placed. The top of the façade is in brickwork like the rest of the exterior of the church, and features the coat of arms of Pope John XXIII in high relief.

The interior of the church consists of a single, wide nave, covered with a double-sloping ceiling with reinforced concrete beams, and divided into five bays by lowered arches resting on quadrangular pillars protruding from the side walls, pierced with large single-lancet windows in the upper wall and forming five chapels on each side. Natural lighting is provided by rectangular windows with polychrome stained-glass windows depicting saints.

The three central chapels on each side have an altar in polychrome marble; in the second chapel on the left is the mosaic St. Anthony of Padua created by Vittorio Venturelli in 1977 to a design by Fiorenzo Jonni; By the same authors are the mosaics Apparition of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1976, second chapel on the right), St. Joseph the Worker (1974, third chapel on the right) and the one framing the icon of the Madonna della Salute (1973, third chapel on the left); in the fourth chapel on the right and left are two paintings, respectively St. Rita of Cascia by Michele de Meo (1978, on the left) and St. Francis of Assisi by Francesco Sassi (1965, on the right). In the back wall of the nave is the deep apse, with two choir stalls that open with round arches onto the chancel, and a curved back wall in the centre of which is a large modern copy of the San Damiano Crucifix. The current white marble high altar dates back to 1969, while the pulpit (featuring a modern wooden canopy), located to the left of the apsidal arch, is original.

In the fifth chapel on the right, above a simple chancel with a wrought-iron parapet, is the Mascioni pipe organ opus 385, built in 1926 for a private home in Trento; it was first transferred in 1935 to the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Lugano, then in 1964 to the church of San Martino in Camorino, where it was altered for the first time; in 1994, it was transferred to its current location and further altered, replacing the original pneumatic transmission with the electric one, and the three-manual console with the two-manual one belonging to the Mascioni opus 730 from the church of San Francesco Stigmatizzato in Saione in Arezzo. Currently, the organ has 20 registers, to which 13 registers have been added.