This time our friend Francesca shows us a jewel of her town: the cathedral of Santa Maria and its crypt called “Santuario dei Martiri Cagliaritani”, dig into the rock under the presbytery of the cathedral.

Of particular beauty the crypt and Francesca says “the crypt is composed by three chapels and 192 recesses along the walls host as many relics.
For each of them the artists (firstly Sicilian and then Antonio Zelpi and Monserrat Carena) made bas-relief tiles with the image of the saint and of his martyrdom.
They are fascinating and, even if it is impossible to admire them one by one, very moving… I never saw something similar before.
And not only the walls are decorated with these 192 recesses but also the vaults are adorned with an incredible number (584?) of roses of different shapes.
The polychrome marbles and the stuccoes do the rest.
A beauty not to be missed.”

A short history:
the cathedral
The first church, founded by the Pisans who settled in the district of Castello, was in Romanesque style and was elevated to cathedral in 1258.
The original Romanesque structure was quite completely erased by various renovations ended in 1704.
At the beginning of ‘900, due to some structural failure, the façade was demolished to be rebuilt in 1933 in Romanesque Pisan style.

The crypt
As everybody knows, in the history of the Church, the relics were object of veneration but also of business and most of all of power.
The archbishop of Sassari considered himself the Primate of the Sardinian church because he could boast the possession of the relics of the saints Gavino, Proto and Gianuario.
The Spanish Francisco d’Esquivel (1550-1624) was appointed bishop of Cagliari in 1605 and, aspiring to the role of Primate, he pursued the research of the relics of the local saints, and so he identified the burial places of the saints Saturnino, Cesello, Camerino, Lussorio and Lucifero.
From here the idea of the creation of the crypt for their preservation. The crypt was consecrated in 1618.

For more info:
wikipedia Cattedrale_di_Santa_Maria

Thank to our friend Francesca for the beautiful photographs