Travel guide

supreme authorities of the four most important towns of the Island at that
time: Cagliari, Oristano, Porto Torres, and Olbia. Four ‘judicates’, or
kingdoms, were therefore established (Cagliari, Arborea, Torres, and
Gallura), into which Sardinia was divided starting from the middle of the XI
century. In the second half of the XI century, an intense building activity
took place, which in the following century gave rise to an architectural
perspective amongst the most intact and significant of the European
Romanesque, rather than being a typical feature of the historical
The altarpiece of the
main Retable,
Ardara (1515)
landscape of the Island. The rising control that the maritime Republics of
Pisa and Genoa had on the socio-political life of the judicates was
responsible for the increasing presence of masters of Tuscan and Ligurian
origin, who settled down in Sardinia developing local styles. The
dimensional scale is related to the function of the churches: indeed, this is
at its highest in the grandiose Romanesque reconstruction of the basilica
of San Gavino in Porto Torres; in the palatine chapel of Santa Maria del
Regno at Ardara; in cathedrals such as San Simplicio of Olbia, San Pietro of
Bosa, Sant’Antioco of Bisarcio (Ozieri), San Pietro of Sorres (Borutta), San
Nicola of Ottana (consecrated in 1160), and Santa Giusta (in the namesake
town); in Cassinese Benedectine churches (e.g. Santa Maria of Tergu),
Camaldolese (e.g. Santissima Trinità of Saccargia at Codrongianos),
Cistercenses (e.g. Santa Maria of Corte at Sindia), and Victorines (e.g.
Sant’Efisio of Nora at Pula). Whereas the other churches span across the
medium to low dimensional scales, and include either cloistered or parish
ones. The defeat of the Judicate of Cagliari to the Pisans (in 1258) is the
historical trigger for the construction of the cathedral of Santa Maria and
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