Church of San Michele Arcangelo, Aprilia
Inaugurated with the town in 1937, destroyed with it in 1944: the church of Aprilia is the fourth new town’s story in a single building — founded, ruined and rebuilt.
At a glance
The church of San Michele Arcangelo was designed by the 2PST group — architects Concezio Petrucci and Mario Tufaroli Luciano with engineers Emanuele Filiberto Paolini and Riccardo Silenzi — the team that won the competition for Aprilia, fourth of the Pontine new towns. Church and town were inaugurated together on 29 October 1937. Between January and May 1944, in the battles that followed the Anzio landing, the church was practically destroyed — bombardment wrecked the body of the building and the retreating Germans mined the bell tower. It was entirely rebuilt after the war; the campanile returned only in the late 1990s and was inaugurated on 25 April 1999.
Key facts
- Design: 2PST group — Concezio Petrucci, Mario Tufaroli Luciano, Emanuele Filiberto Paolini, Riccardo Silenzi.
- Inaugurated: 29 October 1937, together with the town of Aprilia.
- Destroyed: January–May 1944, by bombardment and the mining of the bell tower.
- Rebuilt: in the post-war years; bell tower rebuilt and inaugurated on 25 April 1999.
- Statue: the bronze Saint Michael of the piazza, made for the town in 1936–1937.
- Use: parish church, on Piazza Roma at the centre of Aprilia.
History
Aprilia was founded on 25 April 1936 and inaugurated on 29 October 1937, a compact rural town by the 2PST group on the northern edge of the reclaimed lands. Its church, dedicated to the archangel of the town’s founding day, stood at the head of the central piazza with its campanile as the tallest mark on the skyline.
No other Pontine new town paid the price Aprilia paid in the Second World War. From January 1944 the town sat on the front line of the Anzio beachhead: months of shelling levelled most of its founding buildings, the church among them. What stands today is therefore a reconstruction — faithful in its masses, franker in its materials — and that is precisely its documentary value: the building carries both the founding of 1937 and the destruction of 1944 in its fabric.
What you see
The church presents a broad brick front with a curved apse-like volume facing the piazza, ringed by thin white bands — a reconstruction of the founding design’s essential geometry. Beside it the slender brick campanile, rebuilt in the 1990s, carries the clock and an open belfry; in front, on a travertine plinth, stands the bronze Saint Michael with sword and wings, the emblem of the town.
Read together with the surviving founding buildings around Piazza Roma, the ensemble shows what the 2PST towns aimed for: plain volumes, brick surfaces, a single vertical accent, and civic and sacred space fused in one piazza.
Practical information
- Access: an active parish church; the piazza and exterior are always accessible.
- Time needed: 10–15 minutes, within a short walk of Aprilia’s founding centre.
- Note: 29 September (Saint Michael) and 25 April (the founding) are the town’s key dates.
Getting there
Aprilia lies about 40 km south of Rome on the Via Nettunense, between the Alban Hills and the coast at Anzio. The town has its own station on the Rome–Nettuno railway line, a short walk from Piazza Roma.
Coordinates: 41.5939, 12.6489 — open in Google Maps.
Nearby
- Aprilia, the founded town — the fourth Pontine new town and its wartime destruction.
- Anzio and the landing beaches, with the Sicily–Rome American Cemetery, 16 km south.
- Pomezia — the fifth new town by the same 2PST group, 20 km north-west.
Sources
- Comune di Aprilia — Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo (comune.aprilia.lt.it).
- Fondo Edifici di Culto (Ministero dell’Interno) — San Michele Arcangelo e Santa Maria Goretti, Aprilia.
- Apriliapedia — Chiesa di San Michele (destruction 1944, reconstruction, campanile 1999).
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