Antonio Barluzzi


In putting together the background materials for our trip, I learned that many of the churches we will visit on this trip were designed by one man, Antonio Barluzzi.   He was an Italian architect who lived from 1884 to 1960.   As a child, he lived close to the Vatican and his grandfather was the architect responsible for the maintenance of St. Peter's Basilica.  So, as a child he would create drawings of churches.  As a young architect, he worked on a hospital in the Holy Land and the Franciscans asked him to submit plans for a new church on Mt. Tabor.

Barluzzi dedicated his life to the Holy Land, designing nine new Sanctuaries on behalf of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. In all he built or restored 24 churches, hospitals and schools between 1912 and 1955.


Barluzzi designed his churches specifically for the location they commemorated. For the church of the angels in Shepherd's Field, he designed the church in the shape of a tent the shepherd's would have used. For Dominos Flevit, which commemorates where Jesus wept over Jerusalem, the church is shaped like a tear drop. And in the Church of All Nations, he kept the church dark to reflect the agony of Jesus and the fact that the Agony in the Garden was in the evening.

Here's a list of the 11 churches that we will see tied to this architect.

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