Oliena, Church of Sant'Ignazio di Loyola

The complex of the former Jesuit convent and the parish church of Sant'Ignazio are located in the historic center, along the main road you can easily reach the buildings.
The Jesuits, who arrived in Sardinia in the first decades of the fifteenth century, already had four colleges in 1588, corresponding to four of the seven royal cities (Cagliari, Sassari, Iglesias, Alghero). From the second half of the seventeenth century, Oliena was added to these centers, founded thanks to the testamentary legacy of two Olianesi.
The church was built at the end of the seventeenth century by the Ligurian master builder Domenico Spotorno, but its structure is basically eighteenth-century.
The façade is divided into three parts by vertical pilasters and ends with a curvilinear tympanum. The façade has an axle portal and window. A double staircase allows access to the Sanctuary, while the small dome of the bell tower, which recalls stylistic features from across the Alps, is very curious.
In the well-calibrated interior, the so-called Jesuit “modonostrum” is respected, that is, a certain seventeenth-century regulation that regulates the number and arrangement of chapels, three on each side. The function of connecting with the College house is also emphasized by the matroneo-cantoria that overlooks the elevated presbytery. The altars are crushed against the back walls of the chapels and built in light stucco on manneristic designs.
A projecting ledge runs along the entire perimeter of the aisle; a triumphal arch leads to the presbyterial area, where, inside a neoclassical altar niche, the statue of Saint Ignatius, executed according to an iconographic model that was widespread in the 17th century on the island, is placed. In the niches of the altars there are wooden statues dating from the 17th to the 18th century, such as the San Michele Arcangelo by the sculptor Monserrato Carena, or the statue of Saint Francesco Saverio, the town's patron saint, from Campania and dating back to the second half of the 17th century. On the walls, some canvases executed by contemporary artists stand out.
In the convent attached to the parish church, during the recent restoration, wall tempera was found, some of which were left unfinished, probably due to the sudden departure of the Jesuits.
In the room where the ancient refectory was located, today there is a precious art gallery with seventeenth-century canvases and important seventeenth-century artifacts of local craftsmanship.
Inside the former college, the altarpiece of Saint Christopher, ascribed to Oliena's master and dated to the second quarter of the 16th century, is preserved. In addition, there is a gallery of wooden statues of considerable importance, such as the Cristo de s'iscravamentu, dated between the end of the 15th and the first half of the 16th century, perhaps the work of a Catalan sculptor.
It must be remembered that there are eleven churches in the town of Oliena, but only two are where mass is celebrated: in the parish church and in the church of Santa Maria, which preserves intact the Gothic-Aragonese structures, dating back to the 15th century.

History of studies
News about the church can be found in Salvatore Naitza's volume dedicated to architecture from the late seventeenth century to purist classicism.

Bibliography by
M.G. Scano, 17th and 18th century painting and sculpture, series “History of Art in Sardinia”, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1991;
S. Naitza, Architecture from the Late 17th Century to Purist Classicism, series “History of Art in Sardinia”, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1992, pp. 147, 205, 230.