Sassari, Church of San Donato

The building is within the historic walls of the city.
The structure of the church of San Donato dates back to the last quarter of the 13th century. The oldest document concerning it, which gives news of its status as a parish church, dates back to 1278. Built in Italian Gothic forms, it preserved its original appearance - despite numerous changes over the centuries - until the end of the seventeenth century, when some expansion works involved an almost complete reconstruction.
Of the medieval structure, which had a longitudinal plan and a single nave with a quadrangular apse facing a cross, part of the west side of the façade survive, with the pointed portal surmounted by a blinded oculus, and the N side, with an arched portal, two ogival single-light windows with a double thrombus and a theory of acute, three-lobed hanging arches.
The new building, whose factory was managed by the bricklayer Pedro Falqui, a master builder active in Sassari in civil and religious factories since 1676, responds to the seventeenth-century classical canons of Herrerian heritage, also adopted in other churches in the city.
The façade, in exposed limestone ashlars and devoid of ornaments, is delimited by two angular pilasters surmounted by truncoconic acrotera; in the center, slightly moved upwards, is the quadrangular portal surrounded by lintels, accompanied by the Gothic one; above, but in the center, a quadrangular window opens.
The interior takes up and amplifies the austerity of the façade. The system has a single-bay room divided into four large bays by Tuscan pillows; on the molded frame, which also continues into the apsidal chapel and resting on the pillows, there is a barrel vault punctuated by three transverse arches and lunettes within which the quadrangular, contoured windows are placed.
The square-shaped apse chapel, narrower and lower than the nave, is connected to the room by a particularly high round triumphal arch; the room is illuminated by a reniform window that opens onto the back wall. The side chapels, four on each side and shallow, have all-round access arches.

History of studies
The church is the subject of a brief summary in Roberto Coroneo's volume on Romanesque architecture (1993).

Bibliography
The church of S. Donato in the city of Sassari, curated by G. Perantoni Satta, Sassari, 1961;
V. Mossa, Architectures Sassari, Gallizzi, 1965; R. Coroneo, Romanesque Architecture from the mid-1000 to the early '300.
Nuoro, Ilisso, 1993, sheet 151;
M. Porcu Gaias, Sassari. Architectural and urban history from its origins to the 17th century, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1996;
A. Sari, The Church in the Archdiocese of Sassari, series “Churches and Sacred Art in Sardinia”, Sestu, 2003; R. Coroneo, Romanesque Churches of Sardinia. Tourist-cultural itineraries, Cagliari, AV, 2005, p. 26.