In the square in front of the homonymous Nuragic sanctuary, known for its important sacred well, stands the small country church dedicated to Santa Cristina, built around the 13th century by Camaldolese Benedictine monks. Today, the building is presented in shapes that reflect the numerous renovations and adaptations that have taken place over the centuries.
Around the church there are cumbessias, or muristenes, small buildings designed to welcome pilgrims during the novena (sas nuinas) that precede the sanctuary's main festivities: the one dedicated to Santa Cristina, celebrated on the second Sunday of May and 24 July, and the one in honor of the Archangel Gabriel, which takes place on the fourth Sunday of October.
If the church constituted the spiritual center of gravity of the place, the novenary already represented in historical times an important point of social as well as religious aggregation. In fact, the complex is not configured as a simple group of buildings: in the perpetuation of the novenary tradition, it takes the form of a small temporary shelter system, an urban and religious organization designed to transform an isolated place into a temporary but intensely lived community.
Cumbessias — called muristenes in other areas of Sardinia — are generally small residential units made with local stone, in this case basalt, which gives the whole a chromatic unity perfectly harmonized with the surrounding landscape. Each cell usually consists of one or two rooms, sometimes superimposed or placed side by side, with independent entrances overlooking the common courtyard. The interiors are extremely simple, designed to meet the essential needs of the stay: rest and the preparation of meals. The roofs often have the traditional Sardinian roof tiles, while the facades are animated by small loggias or simple lintels, elements that testify to an essential but effective construction skill.
The novenary of Santa Cristina represents, in its apparent simplicity, a significant example of how traditional rural architecture knows how to mediate between the daily dimension and that of the sacred. The inner courtyard — the heart of the complex — not only performed the function of passage, but was configured as a community space, a sort of small square where pilgrims shared meals, songs and moments of prayer. During the nine days of the novena, the distinction between the family sphere and the collective dimension thus tended to fade.
The arrangement of the houses according to a “fence” pattern also helped to create a sort of temporary enclosure, generating a sense of protection and separation from the outside world. The entry into the novenary symbolically marked the transition to a suspended time, in which the daily work in the fields left room for the experience of devotion and community life.
Even today, the Santa Cristina novenary does not look like a musealized place. During the May and October holidays, the cumbessias are reopened by the owners or devotees, bringing the complex back to life. The smoke that rises from the chimneys and the scents of prepared and shared food make tangible the deep bond between community, territory and sacred dimension, transforming architecture into an experience that involves not only space, but also memory and the senses.

History of studies 
Although studies on the Santa Cristina area have mainly focused on the nuragic sacred well — an iconic example of prehistoric architecture in Sardinia — the church of Santa Cristina and its muristenes have been the subject of historical-anthropological investigations since the first half of the 19th century. Also important are studies focused on Christian devotional practices. For other aspects, there are also historical bibliographic citations on the rivalry between the hundred of Bonarcado and that of Paulilatino — fighting each other for primacy in devotion to Santa Cristina — and historical notes that report the legend about the origin of the religious site, linked to the use of the sacred nuragic well as a baptismal font made by the Saint.

Bibliography
Moravetti, A. (1995). Il santuario di Santa Cristina di Paulilatino. In "La civiltà nuragica", Quaderni della Soprintendenza Archeologica di Cagliari e Oristano. (Fondamentale per l'inquadramento archeologico).
Moravetti, A. (2000). Il complesso di Santa Cristina. In "Il Santuario di Santa Cristina" (Edizioni del Sole).
Sardegna Cultura (Catalogo dei beni culturali RAS). Chiesa di Santa Cristina e muristenes: schede 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - Paulilatino (OR). 
Il novenario di Santa Cristina nel Comune di Paulilatino (PDF, Academia.edu): Studio che tratta l'architettura delle cumbessias e la loro funzione abitativa temporanea legata al culto.
Goffredo Casalis e Vittorio Angius: “Dizionario geografico, storico, statistico, commerciale degli stati di S.M. il re di Sardegna – compilato per cura del professore Goffredo Casalis”, 1841, G. Maspero Libraio e Cassone e Marzorati tipografi, Torino.
Raffaele Pettazzoni: “La religione primitiva in Sardegna”, Piacenza 1912.