Sardinia Spanish

The first creation Spanish which can be found in Sardinia is the Aragonese Gothic chapel of the Cathedral of Cagliari, followed by the churches of San Francesco di Iglesias, San Giorgio di Perfugas and the facility of the Cathedral of Alghero. Example of baroque however, is the Cathedral of Ales.

The Pinacoteca Nazionale di Cagliari are works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a period in which it is born and flourishes a remarkable school dedicated to the art of painting of the altarpiece.

The most important works of the period of Savoy are the theaters of Cagliari, Sassari and Alghero, the palaces of the provinces and the Palazzo Comunale di Cagliari.

Iglesias, the church of San Francesco

In the historical center of Iglesias, a short distance from the cathedral, the church of San Francesco, one of the Catalan Gothic architecture most intact and significant of Sardinia. The building, in sedimentary and volcanic stone, was built in stages between the '300 and the' 500; the present building dates from the sixteenth century, and later additions and interventions have maintained their forms of Gothic-Catalan.

The facade, shaped like a hut, is decorated with two round windows and a rose window above the portal. Inside, pointed arches supporting the wooden roof and divide the nave, the sides of which are the chapels noble, seven per side. Through a large pointed arch you come to the presbytery, a square covered by a hexagon.

Among the various elements of liturgical furniture that can be found inside the church, we note the altarpiece of San Francesco, altarpiece of 1500, made ??in the workshops of the district Stampace Cagliari.

Perfugas, Church of San Giorgio

The church of San Giorgio, built in the fifteenth century in the Catalan Gothic style, entirely in red vulcanite, stands on a volcanic rock on the outskirts of Perfugas. Near the church is the dolmen of San Giorgio.

The façade is decorated with a frieze of trefoil arches, a beautiful rose window radially and a portal surmounted by some statuettes, depicting the Saints Peter and Paul and St. George and the dragon. The interior, a single nave, is covered by a vault with Gothic arches resting on columns decorated with floral and animal motifs. The altarpiece of San Giorgio, which once stood in the wide chancel area, is now housed in the chapel of the diocese museum of Perfugas.

Alghero, Cathedral of Santa Maria

On the small square Duomo Alghero overlooks the Cathedral of Santa Maria, built in the sixteenth century with an interesting mixture of styles: its oldest structures, the apse and the octagonal bell tower, are an example of g-otic Catalan pure; the successive transformations of the interior and the facade dates back to the late eighteenth century.

The exterior of the cathedral is characterized by 'high bell tower, a symbol of Alghero, which stands out in the urban landscape of the historical center. The tower, in gothic style and octagonal, is part of the first phase of construction of the building: the base of the tower is the portal, decorated with lilies carved according to the reasons for the flamboyant Gothic, while the top is a slender spire. The facade, in neoclassical style, is decorated with a triangular pediment supported by four columns. Next to the cathedral is the Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art, which exhibits the cathedral treasury and works from churches of the diocese.

The interior of the cathedral is divided into three naves separated by pillars and columns of classical taste. In the aisles there are six chapels, three on each side; of particular importance is the first chapel on the right, dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament, which houses an impressive marble altar. Other chapels open onto the transept, which also houses the neoclassical marble mausoleum of Duke Maurice of Savoy, built in the early nineteenth century by the sculptor Felice Festa, commissioned by Carlo Felice of Savoy, brother of the Duke.

Under the seventeenth-century octagonal dome is the presbytery, surrounded by a balustrade made of inlaid marble by Joseph Massetti Genoese in 1727. The same artist also created the high altar, with the group of sculptures depicting the Immaculate between angels, and l ' elegant pulpit. Behind the wooden choir, polygonal apse, there are five chapels in the Gothic style, joined together to form an ambulatory.

Ales, St. Peter's Cathedral

In the small town of Ales, in the province of Oristano, it is the Cathedral of St. Peter, a monumental Baroque style built in 1687 on the ruins of an earlier church. The Cathedral, dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, is at the center of the village and overlooks a large terraced plaza reached by a staircase.

The facade is framed by two towers, connected by a terrace, below which is a portico with round arches. At the height of the prospectus is a statue of St. Peter. Crown the building the two small domes on the top of the bell towers and the great dome that stands at the intersection of the nave with the transept.

The interior has a nave, a barrel vault as well as the transept, with two side chapels: the Chapel of San Michele Arcangelo hosts, as well as an altar with a painting of the archangel, also the baptismal font, the works of the eighteenth century; c the appeals of St. Peter of Verona, next to the eighteenth-century marble pulpit, is adorned with a painting of her martyrdom; the chapel of the Blessed hosts a nineteenth-century altar, the work of Michele and Francesco Fiaschi Cucchiari, and an eighteenth-century painting depicting the Immaculate; Finally, the chapel dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua still houses an altar with a canvas, anonymous artist, depicting St. Anthony with Baby Jesus, always the eighteenth century.

In the south transept is the 'altar of the Holy Cross, largely painted on the wall, with a wooden sculpture of the crucified built between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the left arm it is instead the imposing marble altar dedicated to the Madonna del Carmine, with a fine blade of the painter Pietro Angeletti.

At the center of the sanctuary, surrounded by a marble balustrade, there is the high altar, decorated with statues of saints Peter and Paul. Apse, rectangular, there is a wooden choir of the XVII century.