Cagliari

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Basilica of San Saturnino

  • Early Christian Age, IV-VII / VIII century A.D.

The archaeological site of San Saturnino is located in the eastern part of the city of Cagliari, an area which in ancient times stood outside the city limits and was part of the necropolis extending east of the town, from today's Viale Regina Margherita up to the Bonaria hill. Here you can still see the surviving evidence of the necropolis and the Basilica dedicated to the martyr Saturnino (fig. 1).

1
Fig. 1 - General plan (from SALVI 2002, p. 210).

The oldest presently known structure in the area is a quadrangular building, whose function is not yet clear, standing in the south-east area of the necropolis. In addition, a stretch of isodomic wall in ashlar, dating back to the IV-III century BC or to the late-republican Age, was found under the foundations of the northern transept of the church. Tombs and funerary remains of buildings from both the Roman period and the late ancient period are still visible around this place of worship: the necropolis alternated open spaces, with graves of various types (pit tombs, “a cupa” tombs, underground sarcophagi; fig. 2) with funeral buildings of various sizes, made of limestone ashlars and bricks, sometimes with mosaic floors (fig. 3); the burials were placed inside, particularly graves covered with bricks and/or small stones, with either flat-placed tiles or slabs or more rarely Capuccina-style. The layout of the internal roads, which the orientation of the buildings was connected to, is still unclear.

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Fig. 2 - Covered pit graves and underground sarcophagus (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).
3
Fig. 3 - Funerary building in the north-west area of the necropolis (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).

The remains of some mausoleums are also preserved under the nearby Church of St. Lucifero, built during the seventeenth century as a result of the searches for the holy bodies  and the discovery of the alleged tomb of Bishop Lucifero of Cagliari, the defender of orthodoxy and an uncompromising opponent of the Arians, who lived in IV century: this consists of a structure originally made up of three funerary rooms known as "underground churches" or chapels  of St. Lussorio, of Rude and St. Lucifero (fig. 4). The seventeenth-century chronicles allow us to trace the original shape consisting of a small quadrangular room connected to a rectangular room with pillars and arcosolia on the walls, which housed burial layers, while others were arranged over various levels under the floor and marked by inscriptions, including mosaics. The 2nd church is still fully visible (fig. 5) - whose flattened barrel vault dates back to the seventeenth century and the floor to the 50s of the twentieth century - as is the access corridor to the 1st church (buried under the former Technical Institute) while the 3rd, profoundly altered, can be assumed was located where the chancel of the present church is.

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Fig. 4 - Plan of the rooms below the church of St. Lucifero in relation to S. Saturnino (from MUREDDU et alii 1988, p. 156).
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Fig. 5 - The inside of the so-called 2nd underground church (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).


Saturnino was laid in the necropolis, probably at the beginning of the fourth century, according to sources in a "small crypt", perhaps attributable to a large apse discovered in the northern area (fig. 6); some scholars identify this as the "basilica" seen by Fulgenzio, bishop of Ruspe exiled in Cagliari during the first half of the sixth century.

6
Fig. 6 - Apse located in the northern area (from MARTORELLI, MUREDDU 2006, p. 24).

The church which can currently be seen is the result of the changes, restructuring and decline which occurred over the centuries: the first construction dates back to the Byzantine era, between the second half of the sixth and the early seventh centuries, with the domed body (fig. 7), cross plan and three nave transepts, of which only the central structure and residues of its rectangular apse remain.

7
Fig. 7 - The domed structure seen from the north (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).

The dome is joined to the square room by half-dome squinches , defined by round arches which rest on pillars with red marble cloisonné columns (fig. 8). The construction deeply changes the layout of the necropolis, which continues to be used, with the demolition of the previous funeral rooms located in the area identified in its construction and the levelling with the materials obtained from the demolition itself, also used for the church masonry.

New burials therefore occur in the spaces thus created, whose position is affected by the transformation of the area: whilst late Roman graves are oriented according to the buildings which contain them, Byzantine and early medieval ones which are placed in open spaces are west-east oriented and arranged in relation to the domed body, which they sometimes rest against.

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Fig. 8 - The dome with the squinches as seen from the inside (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).

As is proved by some documents from the Court of Cagliari, during the Giudicato period the church was given by the judge to the monks of St. Vittore of Marseille who, between 1089 and 1119, restructured it according to pre-Romanesque models, keeping the central domed body and reconstructing the four transepts, of which only the eastern remains intact, with three naves and on which perhaps the main apse was built, faced in limestone with hints of two-colour paint in the apse, a middle barrel vaulted nave and the cross-vaulted aisles (figs. 9-10). The Provencal workers used a great deal of reclaimed material such as capitals, columns, architectural fragments, inscriptions and memorial stones. All the burials and early Middle Age contexts were in turn obliterated by the flooring during the “Vittorina” period.

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Fig. 9 - East transept of the basilica, with nave and side aisles (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).
10
Fig. 10 - Seventeenth-century plan of the Basilica (from CARMONA 1631, f. 61ar).

During the seventeenth century, the already partially decrepit area inside and outside the church was devastated by the search for the bodies of saints, following which a crypt was built along the longitudinal axis of the church, now partially preserved, which was originally accessible by a staircase (fig. 11). These excavations, conducted without any scientific method, but simply in order to bring to light the largest possible number of alleged martyrs’ relics, have irrevocably altered the oldest layers, thereby creating considerable difficulties for modern scholars to understand and reconstruct the site.

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Fig. 11 - Plan of the basilica with the crypt (from MUREDDU et alii 1988, p. 175, table 31 ).

Bibliografia

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Credits

Scientific coordination
dr. Maria Grazia Arru

Scientific advisory support
prof. Rossana Martorelli, dr. Lucia Mura

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