Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Poggio dei Pini, a residential center on the outskirts of Capoterra, was canonically erected on January 1, 1985. Construction of the new church, designed by engineer Giorgio Diaz, began on February 19, 1989, with the laying of the foundation stone. The consecration and final opening for worship took place on February 9, 1997.
The design was worked out keeping in mind the Gospel figure of that “master of the house, who brings out of his treasure new things and old things” (Mt. 13:52), so that the building on the one hand would be consonant and functional to the practical needs of the Christian community, and at the same time would be a participant in a millennia-old architectural tradition, which could not be circumvented.
The church, therefore, was assigned a circular form, with the altar at a geometric fulcrum, according to the new liturgical criteria established by the Second Vatican Council. The architectural model was taken from the rotunda of the Anastasis, the Greek name for the basilica of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, with its inner crown of twelve columns, symbol of the Apostles, and its very special truncated dome from the Crusader era, which was destroyed in 1808.
Also very curious is the baptismal font, an exact copy in shape and size of the early Christian one found in Leptis Magna, Libya.
The parish church of Poggio dei pini also lends itself to different levels of symbolic interpretation, in any case intended to emphasize its role as a figure or sign of the pilgrim Church on earth, destined for glory in the heavenly Jerusalem. In the light of the conciliar teachings on liturgical and ecclesiological matters, it therefore stands out as one of the most relevant and significant examples of contemporary sacred architecture, not only in the island context.
