A minimalist Spanish concrete church wins the 'Frate Sole' International Prize for Sacred Architecture

The 2024 "Frate Sole" International Prize for Sacred Architecture has been awarded to Spanish architect Fernando Menis for his three-year-old Holy Redeemer Church of Las Chumberas in the Spanish Canary Islands town of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Spain.

The winning design effort was selected by an international jury from a grouping of 128 entries representing 28 different countries. What Menis describes as the "evolution of a collective dream" is the product of a fifteen-year construction effort. The result, a "labor of love and dedication" for the tight-knit community, draws on the local volcanic landscape to create an austere space denoted for its incorporation of natural light, energy efficiency, and acoustic quality.

His firm describes: "Daylight filters through the cuts, shaping a free-flowing, introverted void, playing a crucial role in emphasizing each Christian sacrament. At sunrise, light cascades through the cross, filling the space behind the altar to symbolize Jesus Christ's burial cave, illuminating the baptismal font. The altar, confirmation, and communion receive noon light through skylights, followed by a shaft of light on the confessional. Strategically placed skylights have a similar effect on unction, matrimony, and priesthood."

As was mentioned, the commission for Menis’s design was financed in large part by small donations from parishioners, local residents, and small business owners. 

The prize win follows an Honor Award at the 2021 Faith & Form International Award for Religious Art and Architecture from the American Institute of Architects. Menis joins Tadao Ando, Álvaro Siza, John Pawson, and Rafael Moneo to have earned the "Frate Sole" honor. 

Second Prize in this year's contest was awarded to Mario Cucinella for the church of the Santa Maria Goretti parish complex in Mormanno, Italy, and the igreja of the >Paróquia da Sagrada Família in Brasilia, Brazil, from ARQBR Arquitetura and Urbanism. The Third Prize winner was Alejandro Beautell's iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Candelaria in Alcalá (also in Spain).

The €30,000 ($33,000 USD) prize is given every four years after being founded in 1995 by Father Costantino Ruggeri.