Bonorva, Church of the Nativity of Mary

Bonorva is located on the N ridge of the Campeda plateau, locally called “Su Monte”, at the center of the westernmost of the Logudorese subregions, the Meilogu, a medieval denomination derived from “medium locus” with an allusion to the centrality of this area in the Giudicato di Torres.
The parish church of Bonorva was rebuilt by the will of the rector Jacopo Passamar, the future bishop of Ampurias and then archbishop of Turritano, over a period of almost thirty years starting from 1582, the date on the capital d. of the pillar of the pillar of the last span towards the apse, while under the simulacrum of the Virgin in the nuisance of the façade, the date of 1606 is engraved, which could mark the end of the work.
It has a system of Gothic-Catalan descent, with a single classroom divided into five bays by transverse arches to a pointed end on high pillars, covered by ribbed crosses with pendulous gems.
The main chapel, also turned into a ribbed cruise, has the effigy of the Madonna and Child in its gem. From the second bay, deep barrel-vaulted side chapels open, which, although built at different times, give the juxtaposition of styles and ornaments - from the Gothic flower to the classical baccellations - that plateresque dimension that represents almost the figure of the Meilogu churches.
The sloping façade is limited by corner pilasters concluded by acrotera in a vase with a torch. The end frame with a phytomorphic decoration is surmounted by a stretch of wall and a second chamfered frame, accentuating the double crowning effect.
The clear score, created by an architect who fuses Romanesque, late Gothic and classical styles, is characterized by the portal that can recall that of Saint Peter in Ciel d'Oro in Pavia, with pillars in a bundle of columns whose moldings continue beyond the narrow cylindrical capitals in the round archipelago, flanked by pinnacles that, crossing the tympanum with a flower, reach the horizontal frame with intertwined arches.
Along the axis, the rose window re-proposes a typically Plateresque ornament in the spiral moldings with spherules and diamond tips.

History of studies
The church is the subject of a brief summary in the volume by Francesca Segni Pulvirenti and Aldo Sari on late Gothic and Renaissance architecture (1994).

Bibliography
C. Maltese, “Persistence of archaic motifs between the 16th and 18th centuries in Sardinia”, in Studi Sardi, XVII, 1959-61;
F. Segni Pulvirenti - A. Sari, Late Gothic and Renaissance architecture. Nuoro, Ilisso, 1994, sheet 43.

How to get there
The town of Bonorva can be easily reached from the “Carlo Felice” by taking the junction for about 3 km at the Cadreas border crossing. The parish church is in the center of the town and was probably the fulcrum around which the oldest nucleus was collected, of which not much remains.