Orani, Church of the Rosary

Orani is located in the Barbagia di Ollollai, more precisely at the foot of Monte Gonare (1100 m above sea level), between the plain of Ottana and the Gennargentu mountain range. The area is rich in archaeological sites starting from prehistoric times. The current configuration of Orani is the result of the union of two villages, that of San Sisto and that of Sant'Andrea.
The Church of the Rosary is mentioned, together with the homonymous confraternity, for the first time in 1684. It was probably built during the seventeenth century when Marian worship also spread widely in Sardinia.
The single-vaulted and barrel-vaulted church has two chapels on each side, housing wooden statues, some of which are discreetly made.
A small marble pulpit is leaning against the last d-shaped pillar of the altar. The presbyterial area is framed by a round arch and delimited by a balustrade. In the white marble altar, twisted black columns frame the niches where the seventeenth-century wooden statue of Our Lady of the Rosary and two Franciscan saints are located.
The most important artistic element of the church is the tempera attributed to the painters Pietro Antonio and Gregorio Are and dating back to the mid-eighteenth century. The paintings represent the wedding of Cana, Saints Catherine of Siena and Paolo Eremita, the battle of Lepanto and the Sermon of Saint Dominic.
The Area family constantly expresses its idea of art close to courtly linguistic conventions and at the same time linked to the demand for information of the popular classes. Hence the tasty and uncultured syncretism between figurations with an archaic flavor and the need for images linked to the good rule of drawing.
On the outside, the façade has a small rose window and an arched and tympanated vulcanite portal, of the sixteenth century type, surmounted by a sailing bell tower, all in axis. A thin frame delimits the crowning, enriched by four blackbirds, also in vulcanite.

Bibliography by
M.G. Scano, 17th and 18th century painting and sculpture, series “History of Art in Sardinia”, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1991, sch. 180;
G. Zirottu, Orani, Nuoro, 2000.