Barumini, Church of San Giovanni Battista

The town of Barumini is located on the slopes of the basaltic plateau of Giara di Gesturi. The territory is rich in archaeological documentation. To the west of Barumini is the quadrilobed megalithic complex of su Nuraxi, registered since 1997 on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The church of San Giovanni Battista is located in the town, near the parish church of the Immaculate Conception (dating back to the 16th century but later remodeled) and the Zapata house, built between the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century.
In 1206, when Guglielmo I-Salusio IV de Lacon-Massa, judge of Cagliari, and Ugone I de Bas-Serra, judge of Arborea, agreed on the border between their respective kingdoms, a part of the “villas” included in the Marmilla curatorate, including that of Barumini, passed from the court of Arborea to that of Cagliari, where they remained until its fall into Pisan hands in 1258, when they returned to Arborea. The church of San Giovanni is characterized by its planimetric configuration with two apsed naves, but built in two distinct building phases. There is no news about the late-Romanesque factory, consisting of the southern aisle and made of medium-sized sandstone ashlars, arranged without regularity, attributable to the second half of the 13th century, when the first attestation of the toponym Barumini also dates back to.
The church should have been consecrated in 1316. In the part of the façade corresponding to the original single-bay hall, which houses a portal with an ogival rib, there are the lodgings of lost ceramic basins. For the purpose of the chronological placement of the building, the presence of ceramic basins does not help, since their use in the decoration of Sardinian Romanesque churches is documented from the second half of the eleventh century to the middle of the fourteenth century; in the second half of the thirteenth century, they were used predominantly. The N-aisle, built in rows of square ashlars of red vulcanite, which create a chromatic contrast with those in yellow sandstone on the other, was attached to the plant in the 15th century; a round portal opens up, along which a thin bull molding runs. Overall, the façade, facing SW, is 7.95 m wide. Both naves, divided by pillars, have been remodeled. One of the pillars has holes along the corners, where, according to tradition, those sentenced to death were tied up awaiting execution.

History of studies
Reported by Raffaello Delogu, the church was described in 1993 by Roberto Coroneo, who assigns it to the second half of the 13th century.

Bibliography
V. Angius, entry “Barumini”, in G. Casalis, Historical, Statistical and Commercial Geographical Dictionary of the States by H.M. the King of Sardinia, II, Turin, G. Maspero, 1834, p. 165;
R. Delogu, The Architecture of the Middle Ages in Sardinia, Rome, The State Library, 1953, p. 198, note 28; The Province of Cagliari.
The Municipalities, curated by N. Sciannameo-F. Sardi, Cinisello Balsamo, Silvana Editoriale, 1985 (2nd ed.), p. 21;
R. Coroneo, Romanesque Architecture from the Mid Thousand to the Early '300, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1993, sheet 134; R. Coroneo, Romanesque Churches of Sardinia. Cultural tourist itineraries, Cagliari, 2005, p. 81.