Sant’Antonio Abate

CN10 architetti’s project for Sant’Antonio Abate church, in Italy, is a general reinterpretation of the part of the construction remaining incomplete, it affects both the interior and the exterior.

The town of Sedrina is situated at the opening of the Brembana Valley around 15 kilometres from Bergamo. The comune has a population of 2,500, which is divided between the main nucleus of Sedrina, the suburb of Botta and other minor centres.

Historically, the area developed on a system of small settlements established along the routes ascending the valley as far as the passes northwards. Because of their distinctive geographical and topographical position, these small centres were always privileged places in terms of transit, rest and commercial exchange. During the nineteenth century, the construction of a series of suspension bridges over the Brembo river contributed decisively to the transformation of the landscape and the inhabited settlements. The imposing infrastructure of the viaduct, by rerouting the flows of traffic so they passed around the central habitation, deprived the villages sheltering besides the slopes of a function and role that they had performed for centuries. The town of Sedrina, like other centres in the valley, found itself isolated – on the margins of the new set of relationships between the mountain territory and the route towards the plain and the regional capital.

CN10 architetti, Sant’Antonio Abate, **top:** detail of the chancel's floor; **above:** view of the nave

The mid-twentieth-century reconstruction of the parish buildings of Botta di Sedrina fitted completely with this urban transformation in the area. The old seventeenth-century church, set along the main road running through the suburb, was by then insufficient for the needs of the community and was converted into an oratory. In May 1933 – to plans by the engineer Gianfranco Mazzoleni – construction was begun of new parish buildings in a central location, a little to the south of the old centre; it has a panoramic setting on a flat area created along the slope and is clearly visible from the new road axes crossing the town. The new church, simple and austere in form, has a single large nave with two chapels and a chancel; the exterior includes a monumental three-arch narthex that represents the theme of the facade. The new church was opened in 1936, even though it was not yet completely finished.

Between the 1940s and 50s, completion and finishing works were carried out; these included the decoration of the chancel and the construction of the bell tower. During the 1970s, further work was done on the church. These interventions aimed at completing the finishings to the original structure, and at reorganising the liturgical space: in 1971, an air heating system was put in place, while in 1972, the chancel was restructured so that it conformed to the liturgical standards of the Second Vatican Council with the introduction of a new altar in white Botticino and grey Albino marble facing the nave. In 1973, work moved to the nave, where – in addition to the repainting of the walls and ceilings – a perimetral base in slabs of grey-red arabescato marble (from the area around Como and Bergamo) was laid, along with pink Baveno granite flooring.

The project begun in 2012 constitutes a general reinterpretation of the part of the construction remaining incomplete. It affects both the exterior, with the completion of the side and front facades, and the interior, with the reworking of the flooring to allow the installation of a new heating system with radiating panels set into the floor.

Given the extent of the work, the project was structured into three intervention phases, the first covering the upgrading of the systems and the new interior floor, the second the side facades, and the third the parvis space. The first phase was completed in 2014 with the completion of the new interior flooring.

The removal of the flooring, necessary for the crawl space and the heating system, meant that the materials and design for the new sections would have to be carefully chosen – these choices were made after close analysis of the pre-existing materials, finishings and colours. In the chancel space, the liturgical furnishings, the pews and the semi-circle of the baroque choir belonging to the old parish create a structured combination of marble, wood and granite – red granite, botticino, yellow roan, grey Albino, and shiny, waxed walnut wood. In the nave the perimetral base, made from grey-pink arabescato, links to the grey marble altar steps. All the finishings are shiny and reflective. The overall appearance and the general character of these materials and finishings help them to preserve and connect to the new flooring.

The new flooring created with Zandobbio slabs and arabescato marble inserts fully responds to the requirements, enhancing all the pre-existing work in a combination of clearer, lighter tones and colours that stand out with the chromatic and dimensional inversion between nave and chancel. The design and the composition of the sheets represent a compositional variation that derives from the proportions and rhythms of the church itself. In particular, this involves a reinterpretation of the partition of the original facade and the design of the windows, two aspects that strongly characterise the identity of the construction.

There was also a focus on the longitudinal axis crossing the whole nave and connecting the entrance space with the chancel. The pre-existing flooring highlighted this axis with two darker bands, picking out the main route. The design recognises the importance of this axis but does not link to the design of the flooring so evidently, resolving the accentuation of the longitudinal axis with a fade-out effect. The presence of the arabescato slabs diminishes towards the centre of the nave, while the greater lateral intensity provides a more coherent and harmonious link with the pre-existing base of the same material.