Serdiana, Church of Santa Maria di Sibiola

Church of Santa Maria di Sibiola. Photo by Franco Cerniglia, 2008, from Sardegna Digital Library

The church dedicated to Santa Maria di Sibiola is located on a slight hill, outside the town of Serdiana, inserted in the Campidanese landscape.
In medieval times, the “villa” of Sibiola, registered from 1215 to the end of the 16th century, belonged to the curatorship of Dolia and was part of the Cagliari court. The oldest attestation of the title of the church appears in the last inventory, dating back to 1338, concerning the assets owned in Sardinia by the Vittorini of Marseille.
The building has a double bay plan, with two perfectly oriented apses. Among the churches of the Giudicato in Cagliari that have a double floor plan, it is the best preserved one. The two unequal naves, of which the S one is the largest, are divided by four arches on low pillars with a capital. Both are covered with a barrel vault punctuated by pickles. The subtarches help to date the church, as they are also present in the San Saturnino di Cagliari (1089-1119), which was a model for several Sardinian churches built by workers at the service of the Vittorini.
The internal masonry is made of sandstone corners; the external one has small corners undersquared in the sides and apses and rows of square ashlars in the façade, in which ashlars of various colors are inserted and housing for lost ceramic basins, of which a fragment remains. The hemispherical recesses are arranged at the top of the prospectus to create a rectangle. In the center of the façade there is a concave with recesses for inlays, compensated during the restorations, which has a circle from which rays start.
The square façade, included inside corner walls, has lost its slopes and the sailing bell tower, of which the basal ashlars remain. The bell tower was accessed by a small external staircase built on the left side. In the prospectus, under the frame, there is a theory of nine round hanging arches resting on decorated floors. The hanging arched pattern also continues along the sides.
The building has undergone restoration work starting in 1964, when it was consolidated and the rooms that had been attached to it were demolished.

History of studies
The building was studied by Raffaello Delogu who, placing it between the church of San Lorenzo in Cagliari and that of San Platano in Villaspeciosa, assigned it to 1120-30. The studies continued with Renata Serra and Roberto Coroneo, who confirm the dating to the first quarter of the 12th century.

Bibliography
V. Angius, voce ''Serdiana'', in G. Casalis, Dizionario geografico storico-statistico-commerciale degli Stati di S.M. il Re di Sardegna, XVIII, Torino, G. Maspero, 1849, p. 885;
D. Scano, Storia dell'arte in Sardegna dal XI al XIV secolo, Cagliari-Sassari, Montorsi, 1907, pp. 74, 330;
R. Delogu, L'architettura del Medioevo in Sardegna, Roma, La Libreria dello Stato, 1953, pp. 59-61;
A. Boscolo, L'abbazia di San Vittore, Pisa e la Sardegna, Padova, CEDAM, 1958, p. 141;
F. Segni Pulvirenti, ''Santa Maria di Sibiola in agro di Serdiana: un paesaggio una architettura'', in Serdiana. Santa Maria di Sibiola, Dolianova, s.d., pp. 23, 25. R. Serra, La Sardegna, collana ''Italia romanica'', Milano, Jaca Book, 1989, pp. 340-342;
R. Coroneo, Architettura romanica dalla metà del Mille al primo '300, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1993, scheda 67;
R. Coroneo-R. Serra, Sardegna preromanica e romanica, collana ''Patrimonio artistico italiano'', Milano, Jaca Book, 2004, pp. 254-255;
R. Coroneo, Chiese romaniche della Sardegna. Itinerari turistico culturali, Cagliari, AV, 2005, pp. 87-88.