The Restoration of the Former Church of San Barbaziano, an Urban Ruin in the Heart of Bologna

In the heart of Bologna, on Via Cesare Battisti, the former Church of San Barbaziano comes back to life thanks to a meticulous restoration project by Studio Poggioli, founded in 2015 by Bologna-born siblings Federico and Caterina Poggioli. The project, promoted by the Regional Directorate of Museums of Emilia-Romagna, stands out for its commitment to preserving the building’s historical identity, embracing its transformations and highlighting the scars left by time.

Rather than pursuing a fictional reconstruction, the studio chose to emphasize the building’s condition as an urban ruin, keeping the traces of the past intact and giving the public back an architecture capable of telling its story with authenticity.

The Former Church of San Barbaziano: One Place, Many Lives

San Barbaziano is a building with a long, layered history. Constructed in 1608 to a design by architect Pietro Fiorini, it has undergone centuries of transformation, changing both its appearance and its function many times. In the 19th century, it was used as a hayloft, and later as a military warehouse. After suffering fire damage in 1922, it hosted a mechanical workshop and then a car garage between the 1960s and 1994.

The restoration, begun in 2019, was preceded by a thorough historical and material analysis, carried out through archival research and careful reading of the surfaces and materials. The lack of iconographic sources led to the decision not to attempt an arbitrary historical reconstruction, but instead to enhance the essence of the ruin, allowing the transformations and losses over time to surface.

Some traces of the past are still visible on the interior walls: colorful writings and drawings, likely from the period when the building was abandoned, create a fascinating dialogue between the historical ruin and the spontaneous marks of street art.

A Dialogue Between Eras

The materials used – Cor-Ten steel, burnished brass, brick, and sandstone – harmonize in a refined interplay of tones, designed to evoke the church’s original spirit. The new windows, each different in shape and size and designed with minimal profiles, open the space to the outside and subtly reference the industrial character of the building’s more recent uses.

The large glazed portal at the main entrance offers a dramatic welcome, with a flexible opening system – either partial or full – and a threshold defined by triangular slabs designed by Studio Poggioli.

The secondary entrance, with its monolithic burnished brass portal and steps that seem to emerge from the ground, becomes an invitation to explore – like a treasure chest concealing its contents.

The doors, set into the various openings, are distinguished by vertical burnished brass handles, within which an integrated lighting system has been embedded – a contemporary touch that engages with the building’s irregular, textured surfaces, enhancing their depth.

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