The Guest house for the pilgrims was conceived in substitution of old buildings that were spontaneously born in the 50’s, without a total plan and placed inside the property of the S.Gemma Monastery in Lucca.

The building for the cult of the spiritual life is planned to offer a place to stay and pray, before the approach to the Sanctuary.

The shape of the building suggests the idea of the purification path, the way towards a sacred goal. The cloister encircles an inner garden and culminates in the central volume where is located the chapel. The openings are intentionally small, studied each one in order to allow spots of exteriors and to hide the inside of the monastery and the privacy of the enclosed nuns to the pilgrims.

Although the chosen materials establish a chromatic dialogue with those of the Sanctuary, a different treatment gives them an own distinctiveness. The new building is therefore recognizable in its individuality and in its tie with the pre-existence. The natural copper of the cover recalls the oxidized copper of the cupola, plaster in large grain recalls the smoother plaster of the sanctuary’s walls, the colour tobacco detaches from the great cream volume of the sanctuary.