480 Coroneo
smaller and built with wall partitions of mixed stone, reinforced by cantons
only at the corners.
A number of Sardinian churches with cruciform plans date between the
seventh and tenth centuries: the sanctuary of Santa Maria of Bonarcado,
San Teodoro di Congius in Simaxis, Sant’Elia in Nuxis, Santa Maria Iscalas in
Cossoine, San Salvatore in Iglesias, and Santa Croce in Ittireddu. Their dimen-
sions were not on the grand scale of the three earlier Byzantine structures,
and they were built not of ashlar masonry, but of small stones that are either
roughly or partly cut. They still feature barrel vaults, but their smaller dimen-
sions meant that their builders did not need sophisticated solutions to medi-
ate between the dome and the central cube. The dating of this entire group of
churches is extremely problematic.
Santa Maria in Bonarcado was built over a bath complex from the Roman
era. Its heterogeneous and stratified masonry embodies a long history of re-
pairs and reconstruction prior to the Romanesque facade, which was added
in 1242, and the neo-Romanesque facade, added in 1933. The last renovation
unearthed fragments of the church’s fifth- to sixth-century floor mosaics, along
Figure 18.4 Cagliari. San Saturnino church exterior.
Photo: R. Martorelli.