Iglesia de Iesu, Minimalist church in San Sebastián, Spain.
The Iglesia de Iesu is a Catholic church on Avenida de Barcelona in the Riberas de Loyola district of San Sebastián, on the left bank of the Urumea. Rafael Moneo's design has a broken-cross plan that is not strictly symmetrical, with heights from 21 metres at the cross to 28 metres in the Chapel of the Sacrament. White stucco covers the concrete inside and out, and openings in the roof cast an asymmetrical cross of light on the ceiling.
Construction of the Iglesia de Iesu, directed by Rafael Moneo, lasted four years and was completed in spring 2011; the technical project presented at San Sebastián city hall in February 2008 set the budget at 10.6 million euros. Bishop José Ignacio Munilla Aguirre consecrated it for worship on 14 May 2011. The German firm Klais Orgelbau built its organ, co-financed by the Diputación de Guipúzcoa.
The name Iesu is the Greek form of Jesus. The main altarpiece was painted by Javier Alkain, and a bronze Virgin and Child by sculptor José Ramón Anda stands at the entrance. The pipe organ, made by the German firm Klais Orgelbau, was co-financed by the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa.
The church faces east on Avenida de Barcelona in the Riberas de Loyola district, on the left bank of the Urumea next to the Jardín de la Memoria. The supermarket and car park occupy part of the basement, reached by a separate entrance at a different level from the church door. The building holds 400 people.
The stained-glass window in the Chapel of the Sacrament was designed by Rafael Moneo himself and made of alabaster from Cintruénigo. Its four glass motifs are a cross, a sun and two moons in different phases, a composition that recalls Romanesque windows. The artificial lighting, conical lamps hung from a net of tensioners, was inspired by Istanbul's Blue Mosque.
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