A new church was erected to replace the temple destroyed by the 1997 earthquake. In the task of the competition won by Fuksas in 2001, it was indicated that the future religious building should become a symbol of the city's revival after a natural disaster.
The Church of San Paolo is a composition of three rectangular volumes of raw concrete. A horizontally elongated sacristy block is connected to the church itself by a small vestibule. The temple itself is almost cubic in shape and consists of two shells: to the outer one, with glazed ceilings, the inner one, with numerous openings, is suspended. This solution creates a sense of the immateriality of the sacred space, and also fills the interior of the building with various light and visual effects: the sun's rays paint an abstract composition on the walls, and, according to Fuksas himself, “you can see the sky through the concrete”.
