THE CHURCHES

The building has got three naves marked by arcades resting on columns, with an apse facing west. Such unusual detail, which may be explained by the intention of building a church with opposite apses, differentiates the building among the other Romanesque monuments, in addition to the construction material used, i.e. granite, a material which is easily available in Gallura. The nave is covered with a wooden roof, the aisles with a masonry barrel vault. Part of the roofing of the aisles and of the church walls was made in terracotta tiles, maybe to relieve the weight on the masonry, due to the excessive heaviness of granite.
Still today, the insertion of these bands of different materials represents a distinctive feature of the building and an element of interest for scholars.

The territory hosting the church of San Simplicio reports a continuous human presence since the ancient Neolithic up to the early Middle Ages. The diocese see was confirmed with the name of Fausiana in the 6th century and as Civita from 1113-16, with the bishop Villanus, until 1503. No documents are available about the church construction, erected by the first quarter of the 12th  century.

Capitals were made in granite as well, specifically for the construction of the church and as a typical early-Romanesque element: one is decorated with ram heads, one with human heads and another one is of a geometric type. The apse shows three panels with detached frescoes, coming from the same church of San Simplicio. Unfortunately, being these Romanesque paintings in a degradation state, they are hardly readable. Two bishops may be identified, though, portraying San Simplicio and San Vittore, along with fragments of a procession of faithful. 

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.