486 Coroneo
churches and monasteries, on one hand, and fortresses, palazzi, and city walls,
on the other, owed much to the initiative of the secular and regular clergy, as
well as civic communities, which included the commissions of the high court.
Between the eleventh and the twelfth centuries, a network of new cathedrals,
abbeys, and parish and monastic churches arose. These have survived in a bet-
ter state of preservation than the civic architecture of the time.
Romanesque architecture flourished until the early fourteenth century,
especially along the coast and in the fertile plains of the western half of the
island. In the east, which is mountainous and offers little level land suited
for intensive agriculture and livestock production few cities, and thus few
Romanesque churches, existed. They were concentrated between Logudoro
and Campidano, with important monuments in Gallura, Montacuto, Goceano,
Meilogu, Planargia, Montiferru, Trexenta, Marmilla, and Sulcis.
The Romanesque churches of Sardinia have been the subject of a long tra-
dition of scholarship, including books by the engineer and restorer, Dionigi
Scano;14 the art historian, Raffaello Delogu;15 as well as Renata Serra,16 and
Roberto Coroneo.17 Current research is focused on aspects hitherto neglected,
such as construction materials (almost exclusively volcanic or sedimentary
stone), planning techniques, tools available to masons and stone-cutters, and
the operation of building sites. Highly promising research that reveals a tight
connection to the land and its resources is currently underway, and has the
potential to provide a more realistic picture of the building boom on the island
between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries.
The Romanesque architecture of Sardinia is of particular relevance for a
number of reasons. First, the absence of earthquakes spared these buildings
the destruction that their parallels in southern Italy suffered. Secondly, the im-
poverished condition of the island after the Aragonese conquest in the four-
teenth century often prevented the modification of Romanesque churches
over time, and thus many of them have come down to us in their original elev-
enth- through twelfth-century forms. Finally, these churches are important in
both their originality and their quantity; over 150 of them have retained signifi-
cant structural integrity.
The typology of Romanesque architecture includes churches with both lon-
gitudinal and centralized plans. The variety within the first type derives above
14 Dionigi Scano, Storia dell’arte in Sardegna dal XI al XIV secolo (Cagliari, 1907).
15 Raffaello Delogu, L’architettura del medioevo in Sardegna (Rome, 1953).
16 Renata Serra, La Sardegna (Milan, 1989); Roberto Coroneo and Renata Serra, Sardegna
preromanica e romanica (Milan, 2004).
17 Roberto Coroneo, Architettura romanica dalla metà del mille al primo ‘300 (Nuoro, 1993).