The Vatican is planting 10 chapels in the woods of one of Venice’s lagoon islands for its first-ever contribution to the Venice Architecture Biennale.
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican’s culture minister, unveiled plans for “Vatican Chapels” on Tuesday, saying the project was inspired by the “Woodland Chapel” in Stockholm by Swedish architect Gunnar Asplund.
Vatican City. Photo by David Iliff via Wikimedia Commons.
Ravasi has frequently condemned modern churches as ugly and inhospitable to prayer. But he said he hoped “Vatican Chapels” would help re-establish a dialogue between the sacred and architecture, which over centuries created majestic churches and cathedrals that changed public spaces around the globe. It’s the Vatican’s second major foray into the world of the Venice Biennale after it staged pavillions for the 2013 and 2015 art biennales.
The Vatican, which spent 400,000 euros ($490,830) for the project, solicited designs from 10 architects ? only two of them women ? as well as contributions from construction firms to defray the costs. The biggest name in the group is Norman Foster, the Pritzker Prize-winning British architect.
The architecture biennale, which has “Freespace” as its theme this year, runs May 26-Nov. 25.
Ravasi told reporters that the Vatican didn’t want to offer a traditional pavilion with miniature models and designs for its inaugural contribution. Rather, the Vat...