Cagliari, Church of San Mauro

The religious complex is located in the Villanova district: the church overlooks Via San Giovanni, while one side runs along Via Macomer; the convent is also accessible from Via San Giovanni and one side overlooks Via San Mauro.
The Franciscan complex was founded by the Observant Minors in the second quarter of the seventeenth century on the outskirts of Villanova and had a driving function both from an economic and urban point of view, contributing to the extension of the neighborhood. According to the Crown, the convent was founded precisely in 1646 by the will of Canon Francesco Gaviano di Seui, in order to welcome the Recolletti friars who had come specially from Valencia; it then passed to the Observant Fathers, who established their novitiate there and who remained there despite the laws of suppression of religious orders. On the site occupied by the seventeenth-century complex, there was previously a small church dedicated to the Virgin of Health; the title to San Mauro derives from the discovery of the burial of this saint near the Basilica of San Saturno, during excavations conducted in the first quarter of the seventeenth century.
The church, single-nave with deep connecting side chapels, has cross-vaulted bays and a partly barrel-vaulted presbytery, remodeled in the eighties of the twentieth century following the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council; the building is concluded by a deep choir and has a choir leaning against the counterfaçade. The side chapels are three on each side; the first one on the right of the entrance portal is covered by a dome set on an octagonal drum, while all the others are barrel-vaulted.
The façade of the church is divided by a strongly projecting marcapian frame, echoed by an additional frame with a less pronounced object: the upper part of the façade is vertically punctuated by four highlights framed by a tympanum with a protruding frame and, only laterally, connected diagonally to the marker, so as to form a double broken tympanum pattern; in the center there is a niche containing, since 1933, the statue of San Mauro. The lower part of the façade is punctuated by six pilasters in five mirrors, in each of which there are rectangular openings, which become blind in the most extreme mirrors. In the median mirror, a horseshoe-shaped window dominates the arch in the middle that delimits the lunette above the portal; the painting inside the bezel is currently undergoing conservation work. In 1935, the façade underwent classic-style restorations, which involved the replacement of the simple tympanum crowning, surmounted by a sailing bell tower, with the much more elaborate one still visible, as well as the addition of the numerous pilasters to restore its appearance.

Bibliography
G. Spano, Guide to the city and surroundings of Cagliari, Cagliari, Timon, 1861;
F. Corona, Guide to Cagliari and its surroundings, Bergamo, Italian Institute of Graphic Arts, 1894;
F. Masala, “The neighborhood and its history”, in F. Masala - D. Mureddu - M. Pintus, Cagliari Historical Districts. Villanova, Cinisello Balsamo, Silvana, 1991;
M. Pintus, “Architectures”, in F. Masala - D. Mureddu - M. Pintus, Cagliari Historic Districts. Villanova, Cinisello Balsamo, Silvana, 1991;
M. Dadea - S. Mereu - M.A. Serra, Archdiocese of Cagliari, series “Churches and sacred art in Sardinia”, Cagliari, Zonza, 2000.