Father Pitt

Why should the beautiful die?


Regina Coeli Church and School, Manchester

Regina Coeli church and school, Manchester

Now the New Zion Baptist Church in what may be Pittsburgh’s only clot of three different Baptist churches in the same spot, this former Italian parish church is a good example of the modernist interpretation of Gothic that was popular briefly after the Second World War. The fine reliefs are in a style that filters medieval religious art through a slightly Art Deco lens.

Regina Coeli
Regina Coeli
Crucifix

There seems to have been an inscription over the skull and crossbones (representing conquered Death), but it is no longer legible.

School relief

Sinite parvulos, et nolite eos prohibere ad me venire: talium est enim regnum caelorum. (Matt. 19:14.)

Regina Coeli Church and School

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2 responses to “Regina Coeli Church and School, Manchester”

  1. The lack of articulation on the church façade almost works – bland but strong-ish. The school looks like a cardboard cutout. An acre of unrelenting beige.

    What goes through a man’s mind when he designs something like this to be built in a city full of many much more beautiful churches? And this church is Sainte-Chapelle compared to what came later…

  2. I went to elementary school there, my grandmother belonged as did the whole family. I was baptized there and received my confirmation, haven’t been there in years, my grandmother also ran a little grocery store called Micky’s and her name was Michelina Darpino.

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