The Basilica of Santa Sabina all’Aventino, one of many oldest church buildings in Rome, has a brand new illumination system that actually sheds new mild on probably the most historic parts of its structure.
Constructed within the early fifth century close to the Temple of Juno Regina on the Aventine Hill in Rome, Santa Sabina is the oldest basilica in Rome that retains its unique design of a Roman secular basilica (a constructing used for public features like courts of regulation and assemblies): a 
rectangular plan with a colonnaded central nave, aisles on both sides and a semi-circular apse. Its 24 columns have been taken from the Temple of Juno Regina. It has its unique wooden door with carved panels from 430 A.D., together with one of many earliest surviving depictions of the crucifixion of Christ which is the primary identified crucifixion to be publicly displayed. Above the door contained in the church is the unique mosaic inscription in Latin hexameter.
Adjustments and additions have been made to the church since then, however not like many different historic church buildings in Rome, Santa Sabina managed to keep away from having its character basically altered by Baroque transformations. That historic structure has one draw back, nonetheless. The excessive, thick partitions and small clerestory home windows don’t let in a lot mild, and the outdated system of clunky spotlights was too restricted and inefficient to light up the darkness.
Small projectors, positioned laterally on the window sills, illuminate the central nave and, mixed with LED strips positioned centrally on the intrados, give mild to the higher transennae of the nave. The positioning of the brand new units occurred in correspondence with the sources of pure lighting, in order to take care of – even in its absence – the identical origin of the sunshine.
The lighting of the aspect aisles with small spotlights with huge optics permits for a subtle and uniform mild of the wood constructions and the aisles, characterised by a useful two-tone flooring.
Particular lighting was then reserved for the aspect chapels, of Santa Caterina and San Giacinto, to focus on a very powerful ornamental parts with a mushy and enveloping mild.
With focused accentuations, vital parts have been highlighted, such because the choir, the apse, the mosaic on the counter-façade, the bell tower within the left nave and eventually, within the narthex, the well-known carved wood door from the fifth century, which preserves one of many first representations of the crucifixion.
This video reveals the brand new illumination system bathe the inside of the church in mild.
