DESCRIZIONE:
L’edificio si trova accanto al nuraghe omonimo di cui ha riutilizzato alcuni blocchi di pietra.
La sua pianta evoca un impianto tardoantico o bizantino precedente, modificato nell’XI secolo.
È costruita con calcare e basalto e ha due portali: il primo nella rotonda mostra un timpano decorato a semicerchio, il secondo nella camera nord ha forma arrotondata e presenta imponenti blocchi in basalto.
NARRAZIONE:In the collective imagination, archaeological research is nourished by excavation, without which it would seem that the past, covered by the dust and earth that centuries and human events have deposited there, is destined, or almost condemned, to oblivion.
But such an image is misleading, because in many cases the past, present and future manifest themselves in happy synchronicity, filling the landscape around them with surprising harmony.
This phenomenon is most strikingly represented by the church of Santa Sabina di Silanus, built in the immediate vicinity of the nuraghe of the same name, with which it dialogues without any difficulty of language.
The plan of the building evokes a pre-existing late-antique or Byzantine layout, modified in the 11th century.
The structure has a central apsidal rotunda, covered by a sort of dome, flanked by two rectangular chambers covered in wood, also completed by apses to the east.
The materials used for the construction are limestone and basalt.
There are two portals on the west elevation, while the main one, located in the rotunda, has a simple architrave resting on the perimeter walls and is preceded by a tympanum prothyrum that forms a small room, just over two metres long, open at the front and barrel-vaulted.
The wall face of the south chamber is largely a reconstruction.
The upper edge of the vault of the frontal profile of the prothyrum is decorated with ashlars arranged in a long semicircle.
The secondary portal, in the north chamber, is of the centred round-headed type, with jambs made of imposing basalt blocks.
Time has made dialogue between the church and the nuraghe more intimate, thanks to the reuse of some blocks from the nuraghe itself.
Still immersed in its ancient history, we salute this monument, grateful for what it has been able to tell us about itself.
VIRTUAL TOUR: BIBLIOGRAFIA:R. Delogu, L’architettura del Medioevo in Sardegna, Roma, La Libreria dello Stato, 1953, pp. 74-76;
San Lorenzo di Silanus. Santa Sabina di Silanus, a cura di F.A. Vargiu, Ozieri, Il Torchietto, 1987; R. Serra, La Sardegna, collana “Italia romanica”, Milano, Jaca Book, 1989, pp. 410-411;
R. Coroneo, Architettura romanica dalla metà del Mille al primo ‘300, collana “Storia dell’arte in Sardegna”, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1993, sch. 8;
F. Poli-G. Lambrocco, “La chiesa di Santa Sabina a Silanus, possibili percorsi di lettura” , in Archivio Storico Sardo, XLII, 2002, pp. 27-85;
R. Coroneo-R. Serra, Sardegna preromanica e romanica, collana “Patrimonio artistico italiano”, Milano, Jaca Book, 2004, pp. 243-244;
R. Coroneo, Chiese romaniche della Sardegna. Itinerari turistico-culturali, Cagliari, AV, 2005, p. 59