Chiesa di San Basilio

It was built to a design by architect Augusto Baccin and consecrated by Cardinal Luigi Traglia on 22 December 1963.The church is a parish seat, established by Cardinal Vicar Clemente Micara on 17 July 1954 with the decree Cum sanctissimus. The church was entrusted to the clergy of the diocese of Bergamo until August 2010. Since 1 September 2010 it has returned to the custody of the diocese of Rome.The church was visited by Pope John XXIII in March 1963 and by Pope John Paul II on 11 March 1979.The church, accessed by a short flight of steps, is preceded by a garden, where there is a statue of Pope John XXIII, placed there in 1986, the work of Stefano Locatelli (brother of painters Romualdo and Raffaello Locatelli) in memory of the pontiff's visit to the parish on 31 March 1963, when the building was still under construction: this event is also mentioned on a plaque at the entrance to the sacred building.The red brick façade is punctuated by two vertical bands that sweep it upwards. Above the travertine entrance portal is walled a mosaic reproducing the face of the 4th century theologian St Basil the Great to whom the church is dedicated.Inside, it has very simple forms, with the alternating and skilful use of red clay bricks and concrete. It has a single nave with side niches and small triangular windows on the upper part of the walls, from which a faint light penetrates, creating a suffused atmosphere of recollection, very similar to a Romanesque church. On the left side of the liturgical hall is an icon depicting the titular saint, flanked by two devotional statues of saints. The polygonal apse was frescoed in 2020 by the Aletti Centre with seven panels inspired by the Exameron of Basil the Great.The building was constructed next to an old medieval tower, which is now part of the adjacent parish complex.