Basilica di San Saturnino

The Basilica of San Saturnino is the oldest church in Cagliari, dedicated to the patron saint of the city, it is located within a fenced area which includes an early Christian necropolis still involved in archaeological excavations. What remains today is only a part of the ancient basilica, originally with a Greek cross plan and a transept with a hemispherical dome at the intersection of the arms, all four with three naves; the current temple consists solely of the domed compartment, the oldest part of the building from the 5th-6th century, supported by pillars with columns, and the eastern arm, with three naves and closed by a semicircular apse. Built as the Martiryum of the Cagliari martyr Saturnino, the basilica was donated in 1089 to the Vittorini monks of Marseille, who established a priory there and renovated the church in the Romanesque Provençal style. In the first half of 1300, during the Catalan siege, the monastery was severely damaged and was restored around 1484. In 1669 it was dismantled to obtain useful materials for the renovation of the cathedral. In 1714 the church was granted to the corporation of the Medici and the Apothecaries, who named it after the protectors SS. Cosma and Damiano. Damaged during the bombings of 1943, it subsequently underwent various restorations, until it was reopened for worship in 1996. Beyond the façade you enter the floor of the vanished west arm, beyond which is the current access to the church, open on a window supported by a dark metal frame that closes the three arches through which the three disappeared arms joined the domed central body.