DESCRIZIONE:
EN TEST
La chiesa di Santa Maria d’Itria, situata nel centro storico di Maracalagonis, si colloca pienamente nel contesto urbano della sua comunità.
È stata costruita tra il XIII e il XIV secolo ed è dedicata a Maria d’Itria.
Ha una storia culturale antica, anche se documentata solo dal XVII secolo.
Presenta tre navate con colonne, l’asse liturgico invertito con l’antica facciata romanica visibile nella parte posteriore e un campanile a vela.
All’interno si ammirano colonne con capitelli tronco-piramidali e un antico soffitto di legno.
NARRAZIONE:Among the churches that show a close relationship with urban context, capable of bestowing a sense of belonging within the community, the church of Santa Maria d’Itria, dating back to a period between the late 13th and early 14th century and located in the historic centre of Maracalagonis, is a tangible example of this feeling.
The cult of Our Lady of Itria is probably very ancient in this small village, but since we do not have any medieval documents attesting to it, we stick to the later mention of 1777 (preserved in the Diocesan Historical Archive of Cagliari), although the feast in her honour was already documented in the 17th century. We know for certain that in the 19th century, the church belonged to the confraternity of the Rosary, thanks to the information reported by Vittorio Angius.
The three-nave building, divided into four bays by six columns, currently has the liturgical axis reversed with the ancient Romanesque façade visible at the rear. The latter is marked in three mirrors by pilasters and pilaster strips and decorated with small arches. The ancient Romanesque portal, now walled up, had an architraved round arch, while only the left side is from the original bell gable.
The temple is currently accessed on the apsidal side, the arch of which is still visible inside, through a portal preceded by a barrel-vaulted portico. The interior is divided into three naves marked by low, wide monolithic columns of re-use, surmounted by truncated pyramid capitals supporting four round arches. The roof of the nave has closely spaced trusses resting on corbels decorated with zoo-anthropomorphic, phytomorphic and geometric motifs. Among the few decorations present, two anthropomorphic protomes with cylindrical headdresses stand out, which some scholars, given their position in the ancient presbytery area, associate with the figures of the building’s patrons. The present presbytery is instead leaning against the ancient walled entrance.
BIBLIOGRAFIA:Nicoletta Usai, Contributo allo studio dell’architettura romanica in Sardegna: la chiesa di Nostra Signora d’Itria a Maracalagonis, in ArcheoArte. Rivista elettronica di Archeologia e Arte http://archeoarte.unica.it/
Pala, A. & Usai, N. 2009. L’utilizzo delle nuove tecnologie a servizio della ricerca tradizionale: il caso della chiesa e monastero di Santa Chiara ad Oristano. Dipinti e sculture lignee medievali. Annali della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell’Università di Cagliari, n.s. XXVI, LXIII, 19-42.
Pala, A. 2012. Il tetto ligneo della chiesa romanica di Santa Maria d’Itria a Maracalagonis: elementi e decori. Porticvm. Revista d’Estudis Medievals IV, 29-46.
V. Angius, voce ” Maracalagonis”, in Goffredo Casalis, in Dizionario geografico, storico, statistico, commerciale degli Stati di S. M. il Re di Sardegna, Torino, G. Maspero Edizione, 1842, Vol. X
Roberto Coroneo, Architettura romanica in Sardegna dal Mille al primo ‘300, collana “Storia dell’arte in Sardegna”, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1993