The new lighting of the Basilica Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill has been inaugurated. Its primary objective was to enhance the monument by integrating it with the architecture of the early Christian basilica, enhancing its stylistic and decorative features, revealing less visible details and freeing it from the previous, cumbersome and no longer efficient headlights.
Thanks to the intervention, small projectors, placed laterally on the window sills, illuminate the central nave and, combined with LED strips placed centrally on the intrados (internal surfaces of the arches), give light to the upper transennae of the nave; the positioning of the new devices occurred in correspondence with the sources of natural lighting. Furthermore, the lighting of the side naves, with small-sized spotlights with wide optics, allows a diffused and uniform light of the wooden structures and the small naves, characterized by a valuable two-tone paving.
Specific lighting was then reserved for the side chapels, of Santa Caterina and San Giacinto, to highlight with a warm and enveloping light, the most important decorative elements. Relevant elements were highlighted, such as the choir, the apse, the mosaic of the counter-façade, the bell tower in the left nave and finally, in the narthex, the famous carved wooden door from the 5th century, which preserves one of the first representations of the crucifixion.
The philosophy of the entire intervention was to minimize the size and perception of the new lighting fixtures and achieve energy savings by using high-efficiency LED lamps. Finally, not only the old lamps were replaced, but all the electrical components, bringing the entire system up to standard, also providing emergency lighting through the same lighting fixtures and redoing the audio and video surveillance system.
The new lighting, which is part of the many protection initiatives carried out in recent years in the Aventine basilica, was financed by the FEC (Fondo Edifici di Culto) - owner of the church - as part of the ordinary programming curated by the Special Superintendency of Rome, directed by Dr. Daniela Porro, and was designed by the company EKOTECH Engineering and executed by the company ZP Elettronica, under the direction of the architect Ilaria Delsere, responsible for the protection of the monument who, as Project Manager and Director of the works, followed all the phases, from design to execution.
Photo: Press release
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