Crypt of Sant’Agnese in Agone in Rome

The new lighting for the Crypt of Sant’Agnese in Agone was designed to guarantee an intimate and sober atmosphere, which the underground nature of the space and the dramatic history it contains impose. The presence of pictorial surfaces on all surfaces made the insertion of technological elements and the containment of the visual impact particularly complex in a space characterized by such limited dimensions, especially heights. The logic is that of the total reversibility of the intervention which can be uninstalled at any time without leaving a trace. All the technological elements were painted on site by restorers in order to guarantee a high level of camouflage, whilst declaring its nature as a technological element distinguishable from the artefact when perceived up close. All the luminaires are equipped with optics and louvre accessories, calibrated to the geometries of the objects to be illuminated, to the desired chiaroscuro effects and to the containment of glare phenomena from the main points of view. In particular, in the space preceding the martyrdom chapel, characterized by the presence of a very material flooring rich in high reliefs, a linear grazing lighting system was created which helps reading through the calibration of light and shadows. The complexity of the underground space ends in a raised volume that allows the vision of the walls of the stadium of Domitian, where a linear lighting system inserted in a structure with low visual impact, allows the reading of the different construction techniques of the Roman walls without the possibility to see the light sources and therefore in conditions of maximum visual comfort.

The type of LED used is characterized by a warm tone (2.700 K), a very high level of color rendering and guarantees high conservation standards thanks to the containment of blue radiation, which increases the lighting levels on the pictorial works, which in the basic scenario fluctuate between 20 lx and 60 lx, well below the limits suggested by the technical regulations.