Title

Author(s)

Vanni Sacconi

Affiliation

Technische Universität Berlin

DOI

https://doi.org/10.65686/FYCB3720

Keywords

Adaptive Reuse, Sacred and Secular Space, Memory and Heritage Transformation

PP

831-840

How to Cite

Sacconi, Vanni. “Between Site-Specificity and the Persistence of Memory The Marino Marini Museum in the former Church of San Pancrazio, Florence.” In Proceedings of the International Conference on Adaptive Reuse. Volume 1, edited by Andrea Crudeli, Francesca Molle, and Emanuele Carrai, 831–840. Firenze: STH Press, 2026.

Abstract

In 1980, shortly before his death, the Italian sculptor Marino Marini donated his personal collection to the city of Florence, with the condition that it be permanently exhibited. Under the supervision of his wife Mercedes “Marina” Pedrazzini, the city selected the deconsecrated church of San Pancrazio as the museum´s site. Dating back to the 9th–10th century, San Pancrazio is one of Florence’s earliest parish churches. Over the centuries, it underwent multiple transformations—monastery, family chapel of the Rucellai bankers, Baroque church, and after the Napoleonic suppressions of religious orders even magistracy and tobacco factory—showing an unplanned, spontaneous form of adaptive reuse. Architects Lorenzo Papi and Bruno Sacchi were entrusted with converting the building into a museum of Marini’s work. Their challenge was to make readable the complex historical layers while creating a coherent spatial narrative for the artworks. Yet long before Marini’s horses and knights San Pancrazio was already exhibiting a unique piece: Alberti’s Tempietto del Santo Sepolcro, the Rucellai family tomb. The Sacellum, designed as a “room within a room”, stands autonomous in the still consecrated chapel, a sacred structure within a sacred space. The presence of this site-specific exhibit, with its spatial layering prefigures the site’s museographic potential, suggesting an intrinsic relationship between sacred and cultural. Could the coexistence of sacred and secular space in San Pancrazio offer a model for reusing Europe’s disused churches? A space for individual devotion outside of the liturgical function, increasingly recognised by modern catholic theology, could be left as a trace during the transformation. The article examines Papi and Sacchi’s project within this broader debate, exploring how architecture can preserve a building’s spiritual resonance while adapting it for new cultural uses.

Edited by
Andrea Crudeli
Francesca Molle
Emanuele Carrai

Publisher
STH Press, Firenze

ISBN Paperback – 9791281661141
ISBN Ebook – 9791281661158
DOI – https://doi.org/10.65686/SISY7263

Year
2026

Proceedings of
International Conference on Adaptive Reuse
hosted by The University of Pisa, Italy
15-19 September 2025, at the Gispoteca di Arte Antica dell’Università di Pisa.