The acoustics of the "Montevergine" Abbey Church

The monumental Churches have long reverberation times (over 5.0 seconds). During the centuries, the long reverberation time was favoured for the practice of Gregorian chants and sacred music. After the Council Vatican II, the need arose to use Churches in which verbal communication is important and excessive reverberation time leads to a reduction in understanding of speech. In this paper, acoustic measurements of the Church of the "Montevergine" Abbey are reported. The Monastery is located in South Italy in the mountainous area. The actual Church was built in the 1950s, with a Romanesque design. It has 3 naves, with 25 meters wide, 54 meters long and 21 meters high. The acoustic measurements were carried out in accordance with ISO 3382 standard by placing a spherical sound source on the altar and the receiving points located in the area where the audience sits. The average reverberation time measured at the frequency of 1000 Hz is about 6 seconds, an excessive value if a good understanding of speech is required. With the aid of a software for architectural acoustics, possible interventions for the reduction of the sound tail were analysed.