Cagliari, Sant'Eulalia Treasure Museum

The Sant'Eulalia Treasure Museum was created to make important works of art belonging to the parish of Sant'Eulalia and to the churches of the Holy Sepulchre and Saint Lucia accessible to the public, which today are an integral part of the museum system that also includes the archaeological area. The exhibition offers a selection of pieces of particular interest. The painting section contains significant works: first of all, a fourteenth-century panel from the Tuscan school depicting a Madonna and Child, the result of a private donation. Then there are four large seventeenth-century portraits by the painter Giuseppe Deris, which depict the family of the viceroy of Sardinia Antonio Lopez de Ayala y Velasco, who contributed to the completion of the chapel of the Virgin of Piety in the church of the Holy Sepulchre. From the same church comes the beautiful Ecce Homo, from the first half of the 17th century, painted on both sides of the canvas and the work of the painter of Flemish origin Jan Bilevelt. The statuary section contains wooden and ivory works dating between the 16th and 19th centuries: in particular, we remember the wooden statue (late 16th century) of the Virgin of the Abandoned, a reproduction of the venerated Virgen del los Desamparados in Valencia; interesting works of the Neapolitan school between the 17th and the first 19th century are then exhibited. The silver section is particularly precious: among the various objects, two large processional crosses in embossed and chiseled silver stand out; the oldest (1576) is the documented work of the Cagliari silversmith Giovanni Mameli, also author of the remarkable pair of silver candlesticks from a short time later (1607). The second cross, which still shows late-Gothic characters, dates back to the early 17th century and was part of the liturgical equipment of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We should also mention a beautiful baroque chalice from the second half of the 17th century that shows, in the foot and in the central knot, scenes from the life of Christ with small all-round figures. Finally, the rich section of liturgical vestments in fabric: one of the most precious pieces is a Ligurian planet, datable to the end of the seventeenth century and which shows in the center on both sides, between floral clusters and angels, some scenes of the Passion of Christ. There is also a complete parade consisting of a garland, a planet, two tunics, a humeral veil, stoles, handpieces and a paten bag, datable between the end of the 18th and the first of the 19th centuries; the presence of the Zapata family's coat of arms tells us that it was a gift from the illustrious marchional family to the archconfraternity of the Most Holy Crucifix of Prayer and Death, which was based in the church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Why it is important to visit it
The objects on display, of different periods and types, are precious testimony to the cultural, social and economic liveliness of the city and the Marina district between the 16th and 19th centuries, with particular reference to the archconfraternities, who commissioned most of the objects.