Giuseppe Rinvolucri

Giuseppe Rinvolucri (1894–1963) was an Italian engineer and architect who lived in Wales. He is known for his designs for several Roman Catholic churches, including the parabolic-arched church of Our Lady Star of the Sea and St Winefride in Amlwch, Anglesey. He designed three churches in north Wales, all of which are now listed buildings, and two in England.

Personal life Rinvolucri was born on 8 September 1890 in Savigliano, Piedmont, Italy.

After Italy declared war on Britain in June 1940 all Italian citizens, including Rinvolucri, were classed as enemy aliens and he was detained and interned on the Isle of Man. He was released on medical grounds two months later, but he was then investigated because of reports of Fascist sympathies and connections to Welsh and Irish nationalists, and a few months later he was sent back to the internment camp. He was released in March 1943 on a program for internees where they were sent to work for the war cause; in his case he was on a farm in Oxfordshire. The church is in Rosemary Lane, immediately inside the medieval town walls.

Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, Porthmadog

The Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in Porthmadog, Gwynedd, was built in 1933 to a design by Rinvolucri in the Romanesque Revival style with rubble stone walls that are unplastered inside. The church contains artworks by the sculptor Jonah Jones, who lived locally. The original concrete roof was replaced by slate in the 1960s. The church is a Grade II listed building.

St Therese of Lisieux, Abergele

St Therese of Lisieux Church in Abergele, Conwy County Borough, was built in 1934 to a design by Rinvolucri. The church is built of reinforced concrete clad in rubble stonework in a Byzantine Revival style. The sanctuary was modified in 1971. The church is a Grade II listed building.

St Peter's Church, Ludlow

Rinvolucri designed St Peter's Church, in Ludlow, Shropshire and its adjacent presbytery, which were built in 1936. The large church is built from reinforced concrete faced with local rubble-faced stone. The design reflects both Byzantine Revival and Romanesque Revival architecture, and was influenced by the 11th century Church of Saint Martin of Tours in Frómista, northern Spain. An application for listed building status was made in 2011, but was declined.

Our Lady Star of the Sea and St Winefride, Amlwch

Rinvolucri designed the Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea and St Winefride in Amlwch, Anglesey, which was built in around 1937. The innovative design uses parabolic arches made of reinforced concrete designed to resemble the hull of a boat with the windows in the crypt resembling portholes, reflecting Amlwch's maritime heritage. The church is a Grade II* listed building as "a remarkable inter-war church, a highly unusual and experimental design which exploits the plastic qualities of its constructional material to create a powerfully expressive religious building." The church was restored in 2010.

The church has attracted critical praise. The Pevsner Buildings of Wales guide calls it "a piece of Italian architectural daring of the 1930s" – "a soaring reinforced concrete and brick vault formed on six arches, expressed as ribs externally and internally, with a conical apse. Three transverse bands of glazing in geometric trefoils of white and blue. Five glass stars (made in France) perforate the East wall round the apse." Rinvolucri's team of builders constructed the innovative parabolic vault in six months in 1935. The same guide calls it Futurist, "closer to Freyssinet's 1920s airship hangars at Orly, Paris, than to Catholic Church design", and unlike the conservatism of Anglesey building.