The Churches of San Gregorio Barbarigo and Santi Martiri dell’Uganda in Rome

This study aims to identify the figurative and symbolic meanings of Giuseppe Vaccaro’s plans for the churches of San Gregorio Barbarigo in the EUR neighbourhood (1970-1972) and of Santi Martiri dell’Uganda in the Poggio Ameno district (1975-1982), in Rome. These particular values may be recognized in the configuration of the layout, in the structural types and construction techniques used, and in how the two buildings’ materials were worked and put in place. These qualities must be preserved, because they define the current image of the works, and because they bear witness to the creativity of their architect. The reconstruction of the two churches’ creative and building process, and an understanding the compositional language used by Vaccaro (and the other professionals taking part in the work site) are an indispensable prerequisite for gaining knowledge of twentieth-century architecture and for defining effective operative strategies for protecting its spatiality, understood as the “place of image”.