Bosa, Church of Sant'Antonio Abate

The church, once rightly called Sant'Antonio extra moenia, but today almost incorporated into the town, is located on Via Sant'Antonio Abate, on the southern bank of the Temo river.
Its first structure dates back to the 12th century by documents of uncertain authenticity; it seems to have originally belonged to the Order of the Camaldolese who lived there in an adjoining small monastery. It was later granted by the local bishop to the Carmelites from 1580 to 1606, until they were able to move to the Church of the Virgin of Help, which once existed on the site of the current Carmine Church.
The church of Sant'Antonio Abate is located near the ancient red trachyte bridge (for which it was called Sant'Antonio de Pont in the past) with which it also shares the use of the local building material.
The building, in forms clearly linked to Gothic-Catalan modules, dates back to the 16th century. The nave is curved like a cross on pillars leaning against the perimeter walls that mark the space into four bays divided by pointed arches. The presbytery is introduced by an arch on half-columns equipped with capitals with plant motifs and one bearing the coat of arms of Aragon and the other the unusual effigy of a blindfolded Moor.
The façade, entirely in exposed trachyte, ends in a hut crowned with hanging arches rising from the two corner pilasters. In line with the inflected arched door, the circular rosette opens, trumpeted and with a five-pointed star motif in the tunnel.
The right perimeter wall is reinforced by a sturdy buttress, advanced compared to the façade, and finished on the front parallel to it by a tympanic element. Just like a tympanized, but even more backward than the buttress, is the stocky bell tower leaning against the opposite side of the church, divided into three orders, in the highest of which the bell cell opens in an arc.

Bibliography
V. Angius, entry “Sassari”, in G. Casalis, Historical, Statistical and Commercial Geographical Dictionary of the States by H.M. the King of Sardinia, XIX, Turin, G. Maspero, 1849, pp. 71-375;
E. Costa, Sassari, II-III, Sassari, 1937;
C. Maltese, Art in Sardinia from V to XVIII, Rome, De Luca, 1962, sch. 148; V. Mossa, Sassari, Gallizzi, 1965; S. Naitza, Architecture from the late '600 to purist classicism. Nuoro, Ilisso, 1992, sheet 9;
M. Porcu Gaias, Sassari. Architectural and urban history from its origins to the 17th century, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1996;
W. Paris, Sassari, the churches. Artistic, religious and historical itineraries, Sassari, 1997;
A. Sari, The Church in the Archdiocese of Sassari, series “Churches and Sacred Art in Sardinia”, Sestu 2003.