Santa Giusta, Church of Santa Giusta

Located on the banks of the homonymous pond, Santa Giusta shares with Oristano the proximity to the Tirso river and the heights of Mount Arci. Its territory, occupied since prehistoric times, was home to the ancient Phoenician-Punic and then Roman city of Othoca, abandoned during the Middle Ages, when the town was concentrated around the hill occupied by the Romanesque cathedral dedicated to the martyrs Giusta, Giustina and Enedina. A short distance from the latter is the medieval church of Santa Severa.
The church of Santa Giusta is one of the most significant monuments of Romanesque architecture and of the entire Sardinian artistic heritage. The particular integrity of its medieval structures makes it important even outside the island. Despite the magnificence of the church and the role of the ancient cathedral of the homonymous diocese, suppressed at the beginning of the 16th century, no document preserves the date of construction, which can be hypothetically placed in the first half of the 12th century.
The building (28 x 14 m, about 21 m high) consists of the room and the underlying crypt. The room is divided into three naves by reuse columns, all different as are the capitals, almost all of them marble from the Roman era, sometimes reused with rework. The roof of the central aisle is wooden, while the shuttles have cross vaults.
The crypt is the only Sardinian Romanesque crypt built entirely of masonry. It has a rectangular plan with cross vaults that drain onto columns. As in the classroom, here too the columns are ancient and the capitals were reused, reworked at the time of the Romanesque factory.
Outside, the carefully worked limestone wall walls stand out for their originality compared to other Romanesque factories on the island. On the sides of the church, the mirrors are punctuated by strongly projecting pilasters, connected by wide arches. On the façade, there are only two pilasters and they rise until they are connected by a large arch that includes a three-light window. In the apse, the pilasters give way to semicolumns, surmounted by capitals on which the arches are set.
In the portal of the façade, a lion and a lioness are sculpted, confronted by the terga, who hold deer. The two fairs are characterized by their naturalistic sense, so much so that they are differentiated by sex.
The bell tower to the right of the building is the result of reconstruction, as are the other rooms leaning next to S.

History of studies
There are many studies on the church. It starts with the voice “Santa Giusta” edited by Vittorio Angius in 1849. The historical-artistic analysis began in 1907 with the contribution of Dionigi Scano and continued in 1953 with the important publication by Raffaello Delogu, which highlights the dependence of the monument on the stylistic methods of the Buschetian phase of the cathedral of Pisa. Renata Serra made several contributions, including that of 1989 in the volume on Romanesque architecture in Sardinia. Roberto Coroneo is responsible for the brief summary in “Romanesque Architecture from the Mid Thousand to the Early '300" (1993).

Bibliography
V. Angius, “Santa Giusta”, in Goffredo Casalis Historical, Statistical and Commercial Geographical Dictionary of the States by H.M. the King of Sardinia, XVIII, Turin, G. Maspero, 1849, pp. 342 to 345;
D. Scano, History of Art in Sardinia from the 11th to the 14th Century, Cagliari-Sassari, Montorsi, 1907, pp. 129-136;
R. Delogu, The Architecture of the Middle Ages in Sardinia, Rome, The State Library, 1953, pp. Italy 116-119; R. Serra, Sardinia, series “romanica”, Milan, Jaca Book, 1989, pp. 143-156;
R. Coroneo, Romanesque Architecture from the Mid Thousand to the Early '300, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1993, sheet 11; R. Coroneo-R. Serra, Pre-Romanesque and Romanesque Sardinia, series “Italian Artistic Heritage”, Milan, Jaca Book, 2004, pp. 123-138; R. Coroneo, Romanesque Churches of Sardinia. Tourist-cultural itineraries, Cagliari, AV, 2005, pp. 74-75.