Early photographs of the cathedral show it on the
edge of the city, surrounded by fields and olive groves.
Sadly, this bucolic setting was not to last. Though Ponti
intended the building’s stark outlines to be softened
by lush surrounding gardens, with the ‘sail’ and the
freestanding arches that frame the side doors designed
specifically to support climbing plants, these plans
came to nothing. Today, this masterpiece of 20th-
century architecture is a poignant sight. Though the
interiors have been maintained fairly well, the exterior
is disfigured by graffiti and desperately in need of
a lick of paint. Those idyllic olive groves, meanwhile,
were long ago buried beneath blocks of 1970s housing,
which surround the cathedral on three sides, while
the back overlooks a rubbish-strewn car park.
Sophie Bouilhet Dumas, Gio Ponti’s grand-niece and
(with Olivier Gabet and Salvatore Licitra) co-curator
of a major Ponti show coming up at Paris’ Musée des
Arts Décoratifs, believes it to be one of the architect’s
greatest works. ‘Taranto Cathedral is the most
accomplished expression of Ponti’s personal vision of
a “pantheistic” religious art,’ she says. ‘It represents theachievement of an architectural dream of building an
edifice merged with water, vegetation and air.’
In Bilbao, Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum
gave the city a new lease of life. Is it possible that
a restoration of Ponti’s cathedral could do the same
for Taranto? There are some promising signs. Late last
year, a consortium that included ArcelorMittal offered
£1.8bn for the city’s steelworks operator, in a deal that
included a commitment to clean up the site and reduce
emissions to environmentally acceptable levels. (The
deal awaits a ruling from the European Commission.)
Taranto has an ambitious new mayor, and there is
pressure from local groups to improve the city’s image.
Admittedly, with a population of just 200,000
(greater Bilbao is over four times its size) and high
unemployment, Taranto struggles to fund even
basic services, never mind cultural icons. Yet the
Guggenheim Bilbao was largely funded by the regional
government, not the city. And surely the renovation
of an architectural icon of European significance
would be the perfect candidate for European funding?
Watch this space – but, in the meantime, go and see. ∂ABOVE, PONTI’S FUTURISTIC
WINGED ALTAR FLANKED
BY CONCRETE PILLARS
SUPPORTING STYLISED
ANCHOR CROSSES OF HIS
DESIGN. THE PAINTINGS
IN THE ARCADE BEHIND THE
CHOIR ARE ALSO BY PONTI
ABOVE RIGHT, TINY
HEXAGONAL WINDOWS
THROW BEAMS OF LIGHT
INTO THE NAVE AND
ACROSS THE SEA-GREEN
TILED FLOOR. THE BUILDING
HAS SUFFERED BECAUSE
TIGHT BUDGETS MEANT
PONTI HAD TO USE CHEAP
BRICK AND CONCRETE,
WHICH HASN’T AGED WELL‘It represents the architectural
dream of an edifice merged
with water, vegetation and air’
Architecture Icon
102 ∑