Common to all eras and cultures, sacred architecture can be considered one of the main constructive manifestations of man. In Italy, in the 1950s and 1960s, there was a renewed interest in this architectural theme and its derivations. For places of worship of the Catholic religion, the liturgical reform decreed by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council with the Constitution Sacrosantum Concilium of 4 December 1963 was decisive. The more active participation of the faithful in the celebration required, in fact, to rethink the sacred space, contributing, with the evolution of architectural languages, to significantly modify the form and layout of new churches. New constructions were often stimulated by Jubilees, both ordinary and extraordinary, but the role of urban planning was also important, which, in the areas of expansion of the city, provided for the presence of places of worship and burial of the different religions. The expansion of cemeteries often becomes an opportunity to reform their structure, allowing designers to simplify and functionally restore spaces using the languages ​​of contemporary architecture.
Civil rites are instead those for the commemoration of figures and events of national history, for which the architectural form ensures material continuity with the present and the future. In the post-war period, in particular, the desire to consign to collective memory the dramatic events that had just passed, materialized in the monuments to the fallen and martyrs of the Resistance or in the musealization of places that were the scene of events that have become emblematic.
The itinerary is a visual journey through spaces of worship and burial that stand out for their design accuracy and careful choice of materials, with a section dedicated to architecture as a memorial.