Cagliari, Church of Santa Teresa

The former church, currently home to the Municipal Auditorium, is located in the upper part of the historic district of the Marina, exactly in Piazzetta Dettori.
The structure of the church, very similar to the church of Santa Croce, had a single nave, on which three chapels opened on each side; the transept was contained within the perimeter while the presbytery was equal to that of the nave. Today, only the façade of the ancient church is visible, the interior, in fact, completely renovated at the turn of the 70s and 80s, is now home to a small theater.
The prospectus is cut horizontally by a classic-style entablature with a metope frieze and triglyphs, which divides it into two orders. The lower order is divided vertically by four pilasters framing two windows and two doors placed on the sides of the large main portal, consisting of a rectangular opening flanked by two pilasters that support the lintel equipped with classical friezes. In line with the portal, in the higher order concluded in “Lucerna di Carabiniere”, there is a rectangular window. The upper double giral crowning frames the Company's coat of arms.
The octagonal dome, located above the intersection of the transept with the classroom, and set on a tall drum on which eight rectangular windows open, is concluded by a lantern.
The construction of the church, attached to the Jesuit College (founded in 1611), can date back to a period from 1623 (according to a notarial act, the Archbishop of Cagliari De Esquivel ordered on this date that the bequests of the nobleman Leandro di Torres should be used for the construction in Cagliari of a church in “honor and glory of Our Lord and his Blessed Mother Our Lady and under the invocation of the glorious Saint Teresa”) to 1691 (inscription on the tombstone embedded in the main prospectus).
The Jesuits remained there until the suppression of the Society in 1773. The complex, passed to the secular clergy and returned to the Order in 1822, in 1848, with their definitive expulsion, passed to the State Property, which in 1882 proceeded to sell the assets contained in them. In 1884, the church, now deconsecrated, became the seat of the State Archives, transferred to its current location between 1927 and 1929.
In 1926, the church became the headquarters of the Gruppo Rionale de Fenu, Gioventù Italiana del Littorio. In 1944, the Jesuit fathers asked the Worship Fund to return the ancient temple, seriously damaged by the bombings, pledging to have it restored at their own expense. However, the attempt was unsuccessful.
In 1947, the Superior Ministry “Intendency of Finance”, with an act of private tender, rented the property. The Superintendence of Cagliari supervised the whole matter so that the protection provided by Law 1089 was guaranteed. In 1949, following the disaster of the City Theater, the church was adapted to a concert hall, while between 1950 and 1953 it was transformed by the Civil Engineer into the Auditorium of the Conservatory of Music. Between 1982 and 1984, with the elimination of the side chapels, the definitive transformation took place.
Today Santa Teresa is the Small Municipal Auditorium: upon crossing the entrance we are welcomed by an exquisite theater, with an audience and a loggia, which hosts interesting cultural events.

History of studies
The church is mentioned in the “Guide” by Canon Giovanni Spano (1861). The most recent contribution is by T. Kirova and D. Fiorino.

Bibliography by
G. Spano, Guide to the city and surroundings of Cagliari, Cagliari, Timon, 1861;
Art and culture of the 17th and 18th centuries in Sardinia. Proceedings of the national congress, edited by T.K. Kirova, Naples, Italian Scientific Editions, 1984; Cagliari historic districts. Marina, Cinisello Balsamo, Silvana, 1989;
I. Farci, The Parish Church of St. Elena in Quartu, Cagliari, Ettore Gasperini, 2001;
T. Kirova - D. Fiorino, The religious architecture of the baroque in Sardinia, Cagliari, Aipsa, 2002.