Cathedral of Oristano: Mother Church of the Arborense Archdiocese
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Italian, Kingdom of Sardinia
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page16 sections
History
The Cathedral of Oristano is a Roman Catholic church in Italy and the cathedral and mother church of the Archdiocese of Oristano, also known as the Arborense archdiocese. Located in the historic center of Oristano, it stands on a site occupied by a Byzantine-period settlement. Burials from the seventh century found in the square before the cathedral provide evidence of that earlier occupation. The church is first recorded in 1131 as ecclesia sanctae Mariae de Orestano.
The medieval cathedral
The first cathedral was a Romanesque building, probably arranged with three aisles. Sixteen columns now preserved in the cathedral courtyard, together with capitals kept in the nearby seminary, survive as indications of its original form. In 1228, Archbishop Torgotorio de Muru commissioned repairs. That same year, the master Placentinus signed the bronze doors of the wooden portal. The doors are now kept in the chapter hall.
The medieval building developed further in the fourteenth century. By 1348, its transept and four chapels had been constructed in the Italian Gothic style. These works established the crosswise arm and chapels that remain among the cathedral’s principal medieval elements.
Eighteenth-century rebuilding
During the first half of the eighteenth century, severe deterioration led to a major rebuilding campaign. Archbishop Antonio Nin and the cathedral chapter commissioned the work, which began in 1729 under Salvatore Garrucciu, an architect from Cagliari. After Garrucciu’s death, Giovanni Battista Ariety of Alghero continued the project. The rebuilding produced the present cathedral, while only a small part of the earlier Romanesque and Gothic fabric was retained.
The cathedral was consecrated in 1745, although construction continued into the second half of the eighteenth century. The medieval bell tower was completed during this period with its decorated glazed-earthenware dome. An eighteenth-century wooden choir and several marble furnishings also belong to the cathedral’s later reconstruction.
Nineteenth- and twentieth-century changes
Between 1830 and 1837, Archbishop Giovanni Maria Bua commissioned new semicircular chapels for the transept. They were designed by Giuseppe Cominotti, an architect from Piedmont, in the Neoclassical style. The interior wall paintings date from 1912.
At the end of 2015, Archbishop Ignazio Sanna initiated a reordering of the liturgical arrangement after nine years of deliberation and criticism. The eighteenth-century high altar was dismantled, and a white-and-red marble altar table and ambo were installed. The new arrangement was dedicated on 10 January 2016 during a Eucharistic concelebration presided over by Sanna, with Sardinian bishops and the Arborense presbyterate. Relics associated with Saint Archelaus and Saint Justa were placed during the ceremony. The former altar was reconstructed farther back in the choir, where the newer structures conceal it.
Remains
The cathedral faces a large square and combines an eighteenth-century Latin-cross layout with surviving medieval and later additions. Its interior has one broad nave, three chapels on each side, a transept, and a quadrangular apse. An octagonal dome rises over the crossing, supported by four curved pendentives, each painted with one of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Exterior and medieval fabric
Principal facade and bell tower
The principal facade remains unfinished and is built from exposed trachyte blocks. On the north side, the semicircular apse of the transept arm stands beside the medieval octagonal bell tower. The tower received its eighteenth-century completion with an onion-shaped dome covered in maiolica, a decorated glazed earthenware. It measures 41.23 meters in height and reaches 44.23 meters including the cross, measurements established on 28 June 2023.
Medieval portal doors
The bronze doors made and signed by Placentinus in 1228 are preserved in the chapter hall. They belonged to the wooden portal of the medieval cathedral and provide a surviving connection with the church repaired under Archbishop Torgotorio de Muru.
Interior chapels and furnishings
Chapel of the Virgin of the Annunciation
The first chapel on the right contains a fourteenth-century wooden statue of the Virgin of the Annunciation. The work has been attributed either to Nino Pisano or, more probably, to Francesco Valdambrino.
Chapel of Saint Archelaus
The chapel dedicated to Saint Archelaus contains an eighteenth-century Baroque altar by the sculptor Pietro Pozzo. Pozzo also produced the marble high altar and the marble credence table, a furnishing used to hold items for the liturgy.
Presbytery and choir
The raised presbytery, the area around the main altar reserved for the clergy, is enclosed by a marble balustrade. Two marble lions stand at the foot of its access staircase. The arrangement was modeled on the cathedrals of Cagliari and Sassari.
Behind the altar is an eighteenth-century wooden choir. The rear wall of the apse carries a large round canvas of the Assumption, the Christian subject of the Virgin Mary being taken into heaven. Angels support its elaborate gilded frame. Two large rectangular canvases by Marghinotti on the side walls depict the Adoration of the Magi and the Last Supper.
Chapel of Madonna del Rimedio
The transept retains Gothic chapels from the fourteenth century. The Chapel of Madonna del Rimedio has a ribbed vault and a Gothic bifora, or two-opening window divided by a central support, at the rear. Its altar incorporates remains of a carved marble pluteus, a screen or panel, dating from the ninth century.
An image of Madonna del Rimedio, attributed to the Catalan school and dated approximately 1300 to 1315, is associated with the chapel. Neo-Gothic frescoes by Ettore Ballerini also decorate its interior.
Neoclassical transept chapels
The semicircular chapels added between 1830 and 1837 occupy the north and south arms of the transept. The north chapel is dedicated to Saint Aloysius Gonzaga and the south chapel to Saint John of Nepomuk. Both are Neoclassical in style and contain sculptures by Andrea Galassi.
Archivietto chapel
The small seventeenth-century chapel known as the Archivietto is reached from the Beneficiati sacristy. It has a square plan and a hemispherical dome, combining Late Gothic architecture with elements of Renaissance classicism. Built as an extension of the apse, it was separated from it by a wall during the eighteenth-century restoration and became a distinct archive room.
Pipe organ
The pipe organ was built in 1961 by the Tamburini firm and was first placed behind the high altar. In 1970, Tamburini divided and enlarged it, moving it to its present arrangement in the right transept arm. The Grand Organ and Pedal sections stand near the right wall, while the Expressive section occupies a small choir loft to the right of the apse.
Its facade is formed by decorative pipes that do not produce sound. Beneath the staircase leading to the pulpit, the console has two 61-key manuals and a 32-note concave-radial pedalboard. The instrument uses electropneumatic transmission, in which electrical controls work with pneumatic mechanisms, and has 29 stops.
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