La Spezia Cathedral

The chosen site was on a hilltop cleared at that time to link the historic districts in the centre of the town with those to the east, where they previously had stood a Capuchin friary.

In the revived project of 1956, the Rationalist architect Adalberto Libera was chosen, who availed himself of the potential of the elevated site on the vast Piazza Europa to emphasise the monumentality of the religious building.

[1] On the death of Libera in 1963, the building was still unfinished, and its completion was entrusted to the local architect Cesare Galeazzi, who resumed construction, incorporating some variations of his own.

[1] The exterior of the imposing structure is strongly characterised by its circular plan and the external wall, in the shape of a hyperboloid of one sheet, without any openings.

[1] The interior receives light from the opening in the centre of the vast cupola, with a diameter of 50 metres, supported by 12 massive columns symbolising the Apostles.