Parish Church of St. Henry

The construction of the church was initiated by Enrico Mattei (1906-62), the then president of the oil company ENI (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi) and from 1948-53 a representative of the Christian Democratic Party in the Italian Parliament. The church was to serve the newly built settlement of Metanopoli for 6,000 inhabitants, which was relatively far from the existing St. Barbara's Church (Mario Bacciocchi, 1954) to the north.
After Mattei's sudden death on October 27, 1962, it was decided to name the new church Sant'Enrico Confessore in memory of the deceased in a plane crash.
The design of the parish church and the surrounding residential area, which was never built, was entrusted to Ignazio Gardella. The design of the church was completed in November 1963. Construction began in 1964 and was completed the following year. A year later, it became the parish church. The church stands in the middle of a vast open space, which has preserved its natural character due to the failure to build the originally planned residential zone. The building has a cross-shaped floor plan (Croce di Lucca) defined by zigzagged rectangular walls that gradually diverge and then converge again towards the presbytery.
The walls are made entirely of exposed reinforced concrete and at two points are interrupted by two continuous horizontal window strips, one at eye level and the other just below the gently sloping roof. This creates a contrasting effect between the surrounding lighting and the solid rear wall. The floor consists of brick tiles and the ceiling is covered with wooden panels.