Ghilarza, Church of San Palmerio

Ghilarza insists on an area rich in archaeological documentation, especially starting from the Nuragic era. The church of San Palmerio overlooks a green space on the edge of the town, not far from the Aragonese tower and the church of San Giorgio, mentioned in the “Condaghe di Santa Maria di Bonarcado” (12th-13th century) as a place where “corona” (audience) was held to settle local disputes.
The church of San Palmerio fascinates because of its organic insertion into the landscape halfway between urban and rural, characteristic of many Romanesque island monuments, which survive on the immediate outskirts of the inhabited centers.
The structure dates back to the first quarter of the 13th century and was single-aisled, with a wooden roof and a sailing bell tower surmounting the façade. The insertion of seventeenth-century buildings, such as the transept and the quadrangular presbytery, has caused the loss of the original semicircular apse.
The façade receives impetus from the two pilasters that rise to the sides of the portal and from the corner pillars that divide it into three mirrors concluded by rounded arches. The central one is pierced by a cruciform light while the lunette opening is not Romanesque. The portal is of the architraved and lunette type with a round ribbon raised by an ashlar and lintel hanging over monolithic jambs. The decoration is entrusted to the bases and capitals, as well as to the bicolor, obtained by alternating medium-sized ashlars in dark basalt and reddish vulcanite. The arrangement of the ashlars in rows in the façade mitigates the vertical effect produced even by the 7 m height of the wall, which originates from a large shoe-shaped plinth.
In the visible sides, you can see single-light windows trumped both internally and externally. In the upper part, there are double-ring arches set on peducci. Some have a sharp archaic shape, indicating Gothic manners. Inside the mirror drawn by a bow, an anthropomorphic figure is sculpted in a praying position. The building is concluded by the apsidal pediment decorated with hanging arches completely similar to those along the aisle.

History of studies
The church has been studied since the beginning of the 20th century by Dionigi Scano, and later by Raffaello Delogu. In more recent times, the studies of Renata Serra and Roberto Coroneo stand out, who have traced the historical and artistic framework of reference.

Bibliography
D. Scano, History of Art in Sardinia from the 11th to the 14th Century, Cagliari-Sassari, Montorsi, 1907, pp. 136-139;
R. Delogu, The Architecture of the Middle Ages in Sardinia, Rome, The State Library, 1953, pp. 164-165; R. Serra, Sardinia ["Romanesque Italy"], Milan, Jaca Book, 1989, pp. 369-370;
R. Coroneo, Romanesque Architecture from the Mid Thousand to the Early '300, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1993, sheet 100;
R. Coroneo-R. Serra, Pre-Romanesque and Romanesque Sardinia, series “Italian Artistic Heritage”, Milan, Jaca Book, 2004, pp. 284-285; R. Coroneo, Romanesque Churches of Sardinia.
Tourist-cultural itineraries, Cagliari, AV, 2005, pp. 67-68.