Oristano, Tridentine Seminary

With the cathedral, the bell tower and the episcope of Oristano, the Tridentine Seminary forms an important urbanistic-architectural complex. From 1712, until a few years ago, it was the largest city building, whose mass, however, is not intrusive, by virtue of the beautiful shade given to it by the mixed stone and brick masonry.
Nothing remained of the very modest building inaugurated on May 1, 1712 by Archbishop Francesco Masones, founder of the Seminary, while continuous expansion interventions affected the building until the early twentieth century.
In 1744, Archbishop Del Carretto completed the central body and laid the foundations of part E, completed in 1794 by Archbishop Luigi Cubani.
Between 1829 and 1834, under the auspices of Archbishop Giovanni Maria Bua and under the direction of Giuseppe Cominotti, the O-arm was erected with an extension to N.
In the first half of the 19th century, Cominotti was engaged in other important architectural feats - in Sassari, in the design of the Civic Theater, and in Oristano, in the cathedral, in the renovation of the headboard of the transept in order to house the chapelone of Saint Luigi Gonzaga - in which he will give further proof of his classical choices. However, his aptitude for architectural functionality is revealed in his work for the Tridentine Seminary. The project is based on what existed before the eighteenth-century intervention by Daristo and, apparently, by Maino and the construction continues in the O arm without interrupting the continuity of the wall texture.
Also during the 19th century, the upper part was expanded, modified during the restoration work started in 1904 and lasted until 1912, the year in which the building was enriched by the nuisance that frames the entrance portal and by the paintings of most of the rooms.
Despite its long construction history, the Arborense Seminary is a functional structure, equipped, inside, with large rooms, including those where the library and educational museums are housed, and spacious corridors as well as a spectacular central staircase, typically from the 18th century.
The façade is austere, on whose stone and fired brick masonry, smooth giant pilasters stand out, interrupting the monotonous repetition of the windows.

History of studies
The Seminar is the subject of a brief summary in Salvatore Naitza's volume on late seventeenth-century and purist architecture (1992).

Bibliography
V. Mossa, From Gothic to Baroque in Sardinia, Sassari, 1982;
S. Naitza, Architecture from the late 17th century to purist classicism. Nuoro, Ilisso, 1992, sheet 73.