Bidonì, Church of Santa Maria di Ossolo

The church is located on the immediate northern outskirts of the town of Bidonì, near the artificial basin of Lake Omodeo. Surrounded by greenery, it is surrounded by a fence. In medieval times, the 'villa' depended on Guilcier's curatorship and was included in the Giudicato di Arborea.
In the nineteenth century, Abbot Vittorio Angius recorded the church “dedicated to our Woman in the commemoration of her nativity”, specifying that the name of Ossòlo was related to the toponym and recalling that the sanctuary was once surrounded by “muristenes”, buildings intended to host pilgrims who arrived for the novena.
The country church dates back to 1632 by two inscriptions on an upstream pillar of the aisle, which recall the names of the “oberaios” Sebastiano Cau, Comida Manqua, Bidianu Manqua and the masters Antoni Pina and Iuaquinu de Otieri. The master Antoni Pina is the same Antonio Pinna who worked, between 1636 and 1642, at the San Sebastiano factory in Sorradile.
The sanctuary of Santa Maria has undergone important restoration work. It is built in summarily sketched pink vulcanite ashlars. The plan is longitudinal with three naves divided by two large arches. The presbytery has a rectangular plan.
The church outside is preceded by a porch, which is accessed from the churchyard, made of pink volcanic stone, going down three steps. In the façade of the porch, there are three large round arches, whose supports rest on a high base; the median one is higher and wider than the side arches. At the extreme end, next to the sloping roof, there is a small sailing bell tower with only one ogival light.
The façade, plastered and painted in pink, houses a curved portal with a molded frame, around which gray stone ashlars are arranged in a fan. In the frame there are two small capitals with vegetable decoration. Two semi-columns, consisting of gray stone rocks, surmounted by a triangular tympanum, flank the portal. On the right there is a second portal, smaller in size, also surrounded by ashlars arranged in a beam. The S side of the church, preceded by the round side arch of the porch, has a portal and a small window. The apse, small in size and covered with tiles, houses a rectangular window surmounted by a sculpted lintel supported by three columns, resting on high bases and crowned by long capitals. On the N side, in which a door opens, there is a porticoed wing supported by four columns with molded stems crowned by capitals.

History of studies
The church is the subject of a brief summary in the volume by Francesca Segni Pulvirenti and Aldo Sari on late Gothic and Renaissance architecture (1994).

Bibliography
V. Angius, entry “Bidonì”, in G. Casalis, Historical, Statistical and Commercial Geographical Dictionary of the States by H.M. the King of Sardinia, II, Turin, G. Maspero, 1834; T.K. Kirova-A.
Tramontin-A. Bergamini, “Architectures of Popular Religion in 17th Century Sardinia: Cumbessias and Muristenes”, in 17th Century and 18th Century Art and Culture in Sardinia. Proceedings of the Naples National Conference, Italian Scientific Editions, 1984;
O. Lilliu, Fordongianus. The “Aragonese house” in Via Traiano, Cagliari, Castello, 1985;
A. Garau, “Projects for the recovery of the smaller churches of Ardauli”, in The Museums and Churches of Ardauli, edited by G. Deiana, Ardauli, Lithotypography AGA, 1992; F. Segni Pulvirenti - A. Sari, Late Gothic and Renaissance Architecture.
Nuoro, Ilisso, 1994, sheet 89.