Description of the attraction
The Cathedral of Cagliari is the main Roman Catholic church in the capital of Sardinia. It was built in the 13th century in the Pisan-Romanesque style, and in 1258 it received the status of a cathedral. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the building was rebuilt in the Baroque style, and in the 1930s it acquired its current neo-Romanesque façade, similar to the façade of the Cathedral of Pisa.
The church was built by the Pisans in the town of Castel di Castro. It had the shape of a square with a central nave and two side chapels with cross vaults. In 1258, the Pisans destroyed the capital of Giudicato di Cagliari, Santa Igia, and its cathedral, and the new church became the pulpit of the bishop of Cagliari.
In the 14th century, a transept was built, which gave the cathedral the shape of a Latin cross, and two side entrances. Gothic vaulted windows appeared on the façade, and the bell tower was rebuilt. The construction of the first chapel in the transept in the Italian Gothic style dates back to the same period. The transept itself was finally completed after the conquest of Cagliari by the Aragonese dynasty, when two more chapels were built here.
In 1618, for the construction of a sanctuary in the crypt, which was supposed to store the relics of some of the great martyrs, the presbytery of the cathedral was raised. And in 1669-1704, the interior of the church was redone in the Baroque style. At the same time, a dome was erected over the transept, and its Gothic chapels, on the contrary, were dismantled. The old facade of the church was demolished at the beginning of the 20th century, and a new one was built in its place - in the neo-Romanesque style.
Inside, the main attraction of the cathedral is the 12th-century pulpit by Maestro Guglielmo, originally intended for the Cathedral of Pisa. It was brought to Cagliari in 1312 and placed in the central nave, near the third column. The four marble lions that supported the pulpit are today at the foot of the presbytery balustrade. Other works of art worth noting are the 15th century Flemish triptych, the Baroque tombstone of Bernardo de La Cabra, bishop of Cagliari who died of the plague in 1655, the 14th century chapel and the mausoleum of King Martin I of Sicily of Aragon, built in 1676- 80s. In the crypt of the cathedral there is a sanctuary of the great martyrs - Santuario dei Martiri, in which there are 179 niches with the relics of local saints found in the 17th century near the Basilica of San Saturnino. There you can also see three chapels with baroque decorations.
