Bulzi, Church of San Pietro del Crocefisso

The church, clearly visible from the road, dominates the valley of the Silanis River, in a country site of great landscape.
Until a few decades ago, inside the beautiful church of San Pietro del Crocefisso, there was a thirteenth-century wooden group of the Deposition of Christ from the Cross, now kept (for security reasons) in the parish church of San Sebastiano in Bulzi. It is a 'unicum' in medieval statuary in Sardinia, from which the building takes its name.
The lack of documentation does not make it possible to specify the chronology of the church. Based on the formal reading, the structure dates back to the first twenty years of the 12th century, with an extension that ended in the last quarter of the 12th century. The end of the work is determined by an inscription by Iohannes, bishop of Ampurias, painted on a wooden roof beam, which Dionigi Scano transcribed on the occasion of the 1902 restorations. John was among the bishops of Ampurias in the first half of the 13th century, confirming the expansion of the church, with a new roof probably built between 1200 and 1225.
The plant is shaped like a 'commission' cross. The walls are made of dark volcanic stone ashlars with inserts of white limestone that determine the bichrome work on the façade, in the apse basin and inside the transept. The façade is organized in three orders. The arched portal is surmounted by a lunette, inside which there is a relief that represents a character in a praying position, accompanied by two bearded men.

History of studies
Alberto Della Marmora (1860) mentions it in his 'Itinerary'. The first historical and artistic studies are by Dionigi Scano (1907) and Raffaello Delogu (1953), who erroneously named it San Pietro di Simbranos. Giuseppe Maria Salis (1969) demonstrated that this title belongs instead to a destroyed church, a short distance from the town. In recognizing her as Saint Peter of the Crucifix or of the Images, from the group of wooden statues that was kept there, Renata Serra (1989) and Roberto Coroneo (1993) dedicate a card to her. Finally, in an in-depth monograph, Annamaria Premoli (1997) proposes that it should be identified with the church of San Pietro di Nurki, mentioned in medieval documents as annexed to an influential Benedictine monastery in Cassino.

Bibliography
G. Spano, in A. Della Marmora, Itinerary of the Island of Sardinia, Cagliari, Typography A. Alagna, 1868, p. 662, note 1;
D. Scano, History of Art in Sardinia from the 11th to the 14th Century, Cagliari-Sassari, Montorsi, 1907, pp. 213-217;
D. Scano, Medieval Churches of Sardinia, Cagliari, Il Nuraghe Foundation, 1929, pp. 80-85;
R. Delogu, The Architecture of the Middle Ages in Sardinia, Rome, The State Library, 1953, pp. 112, 160-162; G.M. Salis, Saint Peter of
Images of the Crucifix by Bulzi, Tempio, Tortu, 1969, p. 13;
R. Serra, Sardinia, series “Romanesque Italy”, Milan, Jaca Book, 1989, pp. 423-425;
R. Coroneo, Romanesque Architecture from the Mid Thousand to the Early '300, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1993, sheet 37; A.M. Premoli, A Sign in Time.
The church of S. Pietro delle Immagini in Bulzi, Nuoro, Poliedro, 1997; R. Coroneo-R.
Serra, Pre-Romanesque and Romanesque Sardinia, series “Italian Artistic Heritage”, Milan, Jaca Book, 2004;
Roberto Coroneo, Romanesque Churches of Sardinia. Cultural tourist itineraries, Cagliari, AV, 2005, p. 33.

How to
get there Take the provincial road 134 that leads from Perugas to Bulzi, finding the detour to San Pietro del Crocefisso a few kilometers before the town