Ottana, Church of San Nicola

The building is located on a small hill and dominates the town of the town. In the Middle Ages it was the seat of the diocese of Ottana, suppressed at the beginning of the 16th century.
Archaeological excavations, carried out inside the church of San Nicola during the restorations, have revealed the pre-existence of an early medieval church, perhaps a monastic one. The building became the cathedral of the diocese of Ottana and was rebuilt by 1160, when it was consecrated by Bishop Zaccaria, as the epigraph handed down in a strip of parchment, which was kept inside a metal case found inside the altar.
The church (28 x 15 m; about 15 m high) has a “commissioned” cross plan. Although it was built in a single phase, with the use of the same volcanic stone, a fact that gives it a certain homogeneity, two constructive moments can be recognized. The apse, arranged in an E shape, the transept and the N flank belong to the first phase. The façade and the S side belong to the second. In S, where the square-barrel bell tower, never built, should have been raised, you can see the junction line of the two moments of the factory.
The façade is on three orders, with pilasters that form three large arches in the first two orders and a false loggia in the last. The portal is arched, with a raised arch. In line with the portal, a window illuminates the room. Ceramic basins remain on the façade. Inside, the room is single-aisled with a wooden roof, while the transept arms are barreled.
In the north arm of the transept, the important fourteenth-century painting known as the Pala di Ottana is preserved. It is a tempera polyptych on panel, attributed to the Franciscan Master of tempera. In the lower triptych, it represents Saints Nicholas and Francis and stories from their lives. Thanks to the characters identified by the inscription painted and represented at the foot of the Madonna and Child on the upper panel, “the Franciscan bishop Silvestro of Ottana and the weasel (heir to the judicial throne) recognized as the young Mariano IV of Arborea” can be dated between 1339 and 1343.

History of studies
The church is mentioned by Pietro Martini (1841) and Vittorio Angius (1845). The first historical and artistic research was undertaken by Dionigi Scano (1907). Antonio Taramelli (1934) dedicates an article to restorations. After the war, Raffaello Delogu (1953) made an important contribution to studies, proposing a factory process that was subverted by the research of Fernanda Poli (1977). His conclusions are accepted by Renata Serra (1989) and Roberto Coroneo (1993).

Bibliography
V. Angius, entry “Ottana”, in Goffredo Casalis, Historical-Statistical-Commercial Geographical Dictionary of the States by H.M. the King of Sardinia, XIII, Turin, G. Maspero, 1845, pp. 668-670;
D. Scano, History of Art in Sardinia from the 11th to the 14th Century, Cagliari-Sassari, Montorsi, 1929, pp. 227-232;
A. Taramelli, “Restorations of monuments in Sardinia”, in Bulletin of Art, fasc. 6, December 1934, pp. 288-289; R: Delogu, The architecture of the Middle Ages in Sardinia, Rome, The State Library, 1953, pp. 124-127;
F. Poli, “For a rereading of Saint Nicholas of Ottana”, in Sardinian Studies, XIV, 1975-77, pp. 225-240;
R. Serra, Sardinia, series “Romanesque Italy”, Milan, Jaca Book, 1989, pp. 234-241; R. Coroneo, Romanesque Architecture from the Mid Thousand to the Early '300, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1993, sheet 17;
R. Coroneo-R. Serra, Pre-Romanesque and Romanesque Sardinia, series “Italian Artistic Heritage”, Milan, Jaca Book, 2004, pp. 149-154; R. Coroneo, Romanesque Churches of Sardinia. Cultural tourist itineraries, Cagliari, AV, 2005, p. 62.