IterrCost - Cathedral of Santa Giusta

The village of Santa Giusta rises upon the ancient Phoenician-Punic and later Roman site of Othoca. Now it is mostly known for the imposing Romanesque cathedral of Santa Giusta, dominating the inhabited centre from a hillock. Erected between the end of the 11th century and the beginning of the 12th, the edifice presents three naves marked by arcades resting on reused columns, each one differing from the others, a south-eastern apse and a crypt beneath the presbytery. The position of the inhabited centre, close to the main Sardinian road axis (State Road 131) and at the centre of the Island, makes Santa Giusta the ideal point of departure to visit the pleasant territory of Oristano, after a due visit to the cathedral and to the small church of Santa Severa, showing its Romanesque features on a limestone façade.

Erected between the late 11th century and the beginning of the following one, the Santa Giusta is built in limestone cut into large-sized ashlars. The edifice, with three naves marked by arcades resting on reused columns, each one differing from the others, presents got a south-eastern apse and a crypt beneath the presbytery. The crypt is a unicum in the Sardinian panorama, for its groin vault resting on columns and ancient capitals, reworked at the time of the Romanesque building.
The cathedral interior hosts a number of interesting elements, starting from the wooden roof of the nave and the groin vaults of the aisles. The original façade is sole of its kind in the Island. The apsidal space is marked by semi-columns, each surmounted by a slab abacus and a cubical impost block.

No document reports the construction of Santa Giusta cathedral, whose dating may deduced by indirect sources. The consecration act referring to the Romanesque phase of San Saturnino church in Cagliari (1119), among others, mentions an episcopus Augustinus Sancte Iuste. Thus, to that date, Santa Giusta was already a diocese see. A formal analysis of the building confirms dating to be theorized between the end of the 11th century and the beginning of the 12th.

Noteworthy columns and capitals embellish the interior of Santa Giusta basilica. Different from one another, they mainly refer to the imperial Roman age. Outside, a remarkable marble lintel surmounts the entrance portal, featuring a lion and a lioness clawing deer, yet without devouring them.

The bell tower is the result of reconstruction works performed by Dionigi Scano in the 20th century.
Also, some masonry portions, deteriorated by the passing of centuries, have been replaced.

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.