IterrCost - Church of San Palmerio

Ghilarza is wedged between a series of highlands hosting the spectacular lake Omodeo, an artificial basin obtained from river Tirso. Off the inhabited centre, near a 15th-century tower, the church of San Palmerio was built in the first half of the 13th century. Originally, it presented a single hall with wooden roofing. The Romanesque apse got lost, while the transept and the presbytery result from additions made during the 17th century. Still in the territory of Ghilarza are the church of San Serafino, outside the inhabited centre, and the church of San Pietro di Zuri, looking onto the lake Omodeo, undoubtedly standing as one of the most interesting buildings of the Sardinian Romanesque.

Originally, San Palmerio presented a single hall with wooden roofing. The Romanesque apse has got lost; the transept and the presbytery result from additions made during the 17th century. The earlier phase of the building, the façade and the southern side were built with an alternation of pink and dark volcanic stones. Pilasters connected into wide arcades mark the main elevation into three partitions. The main portal, in the middle, is surmounted by a semicircular opening made in a subsequent period. On the southern side, a single-light window lets light filter through. Lombard bands upon small corbels follow the upper wall sections.

No documentary source was left regarding the church foundation, although a formal analysis may date it from the first quarter of the 13th century. A document reports the Sanctu Paraminu de Gilarce in the Condaghe di Santa Maria di Bonarcado. Still in the territory of Ghilarza are the church of San Serafino, outside the inhabited centre, and the church of San Pietro di Zuri, looking onto the lake Omodeo, certainly one of the most interesting buildings of the Sardinian Romanesque. A unique case, either the church construction date, 1291, and the name of the architect who built it, Anselmo da Como, are known. Thanks to an inscription on the façade, the client’s name, the abbess Sardigna de Lacon, is also known.

In the 1920’s, the church was moved from the site where it had first been erected to be rebuilt upstream, according to the anastylosis technique, to allow the construction of an artificial basin, the lake Omodeo.

Roberto Coroneo, Architettura romanica dalla metà del mille al primo ‘300, Nuoro, 1993. Roberto Coroneo, Renata Serra, Sardegna preromanica e romanica, collana “Patrimonio artistico italiano”, Milano, 2004.Roberto Coroneo, Chiese romaniche della Sardegna. Itinerari turistico-culturali, Cagliari, 2005.