Chiesa di Maria Regina della Pace

Chiesa di Maria Regina della Pace stands in Italy as a large church with a Greek-cross plan and late eclectic Romanesque-Byzantine character. Its angled entrance avoids a single frontal façade. The spacious interior gathers around a central dome, while elevated matronea overlook the nave from above. Rows of cylindrical columns support these upper galleries.

The building grew from a chapel begun in 1892, followed by the larger sanctuary and its inauguration in June 1901. Monsignor Michele Mossotto initiated the church project. An octagonal bell tower joined the church in 1912, before wartime bombing severely damaged the dome, organ, tower, and roofs. The masonry dome nearly collapsed during the bombing.

Reconstruction introduced reinforced-concrete supports and new bells in 1952, restoring the structure after extensive wartime damage. A Tamburini organ later joined the restored interior. Michele Baretta completed the great dome fresco in 1958, showing the Virgin and Child beside portraits of founders and notable figures. Piero Dalle Ceste painted additional apsidal vaults. The presbytery later received a bronze crucifix by Ennio Ferrari, while the frescoes underwent restoration in 2008 and 2009. After Mossotto’s death, the parish passed to the Oblates of Mary Virgin. The canonical name Maria Regina della Pace emerged later. The painted dome remains the clearest meeting point between artistic detail and postwar reconstruction.