Santa Lucia Church and Parish Complex: Space and Ritual

On the outskirts of Enna, a Sicilian town with a population of 25,000, the Santa Lucia parish complex is a religious building that also acts as an urban catalyst. Designed by Atelier di Architettura, the project is the result of a 20-year process – from the initial competition held by the Diocese of Piazza Armerina to its final completion. Rather than simply a response to functional needs, it is the culmination of years of changing conditions, constraints, and visions.

An urban threshold for the community

Located in the city’s lower district, the Santa Lucia neighborhood is a disjointed landscape of insular building clusters, fragmented by the steep terrain and a road network that provides little connectivity. Against this backdrop, the design aligns with the north-south road bordering the site, transforming a boundary into an opportunity. The parish buildings follow the site’s perimeter, with the exception of the elliptical volume housing the parvis – the symbolic heart of the project – onto which the main entrances of the church and the surrounding complex open.

This space reveals the dual nature of the project as both urban infrastructure and religious center. The smaller buildings – the parish hall and sacristy – form a continuous base that acts as a buffer between the street noise and the quieter, more protected interior of the complex. The church’s nave – an elliptical volume marked by a large weathering steel portal and flanked by the bell tower – is a formal departure that provides a visual landmark for the area.

“The overall architectural layout creates a human-scale gathering space that is both accessible and possesses a clear identity,” explains Giuseppina Farina, an architect at Atelier di Architettura. “The formal departure of the ellipse – with its solid, essential materiality and simple, regular lines – doesn’t just make the church recognizable; it establishes a presence in the landscape and improves the quality of the surrounding urban fabric.”

Designing a sense of the sacred

Despite its apparent simplicity, the ellipse embodies a range of symbolic meanings. The architects trace the form to the iconography of the Madonna and Child, specifically referencing the minimalist lines of Henri Matisse’s work for the Vence Chapel. The nave’s verticality suggests reaching toward the divine – a reference to the celestial New Jerusalem – while its curved perimeter creates a protective, womb-like space, a maternal gesture that opens to the community.

This tension between vertical and horizontal – between ascent and welcome – is expressed through a layout that alternates solids and voids. Carefully positioned openings along the site’s irregular perimeter create multiple access points, allowing the complex to bridge the neighborhood’s fragmentation. The parvis is not only a forecourt but also a space designed for social interaction.

Inside, the dynamism of the ellipse is amplified through a sequence that leads visitors from the parvis through the exonarthex (the entrance portal) and into the endonarthex (internal vestibule). This path culminates in a shift in direction that refocuses attention on the east-facing altar.

Always indirect and controlled, natural and artificial light shapes the liturgical space. Three light chimneys – positioned above the ambo, the baptismal font, and the weekday chapel – define the primary functional areas and highlight the Carrara marble used throughout the interior. Meanwhile, vertical apertures in the apse filter light through a triptych of glass and resin altarpieces, creating a chromatic resonance that heightens the sense of the sacred. A slender perimeter skylight follows the ellipse, casting a raking light across the walls, while a single direct beam from the central oculus marks the omphalos – the building’s symbolic and spatial center.

The Santa Lucia parish complex reasserts the historical role of church buildings within the urban fabric, acting not only as a place of worship, but as a landmark that anchors community life.

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