Driving north from Venice, you can reach the heart of the Dolomites in under two hours. Hidden within these forests is an extraordinary building commemorating Longarone—a town wiped out by a mountain torrent in the 1960s.

On an unassuming autumn night, a landslide shattered an upstream dam, triggering a massive wave that swallowed the town without warning. Over a thousand residents perished, and the old church was obliterated, leaving only fragments of stone sculpture and a bronze bell. In rebuilding, the community longed to remember its past while embracing hope for the future. Thus, the mountain church was born.

Architect Giovanni Michelucci, whose career spanned two world wars and a period of vigorous post-war reconstruction, was the ideal choice to design this memorial. The church features a dual-theatre layout: the upper open-air theatre faces the very mountain and river that once devoured the town, while the inner theatre displays a dismembered Christ salvaged from downstream. Carefully arranged remnants in a sunken lower space frame distant mountains through a tall window.

Reflecting the spirit of 1960s Italian architecture—bold, complex yet direct—Michelucci’s design marries sculptural form with clarity. On my visit, morning mists shrouded the dark, damp interior; as sunlight filtered in, the cedar panels glowed warmly and the concrete softened, while the resonant noon bells echoed like ancient melodies.