Santa Giusta Cathedral
The three-nave cathedral of Santa Giusta is two miles south of Oristano on a hill in the north of the town of Santa Giusta in the province of Oristano in Sardinia. She is one of the largest and most beautiful Romanesque-Pisan churches of Sardinia.
For the 1145 completed construction of the Cathedral of the Diocese of Santa Giusta - that was in 1504 the Archdiocese of Oristano affiliated - assured you are in giudicato Arborea participation Pisan architects and Arabic craftsmen. The slender, graceful forms, the light open construction and the even the most careful use of color patterns do the cathedral became a protagonist of the new style of architecture on the island.
From San Gavino in Porto Torres, the idea of pairs of pilasters blind arches supported originates. The slender half columns of the apse as well go on influences of the Pisan cathedral back as the three-light windows of the facade. The yoke of the cross vaults in the aisles are not separated by transverse arches form but from the interpenetration of two vaults tons. The main entrance with its discharge arc is indeed similar to that of San Frediano in Lucca, on the other hand, there are, however, for the idiosyncratic façade no further Tuscan examples. The design of the front side and the choir is therefore clearly back on Lombard models.
In the vicinity of the present cathedral was before the Christian era, the Phoenician- Punic city Othoca (old city), whose port was at today reeded lake Stagno di Santa Giusta and their stones and columns (as well as of Tharros ) were installed in the cathedral.
The discoveries made in the area range from the 7th to the 3rd century BC The necropolis of Othoca is the church of Santa Severa. Here they discovered a Phoenician chamber grave from the 7th century. BC The built of ashlar construction has a rectangular plan, two side niches and a mutated gable roof with ridge beam. This grave type is known from the Levant, North Africa and southern Spain, however, is yet to be found only in Sardinia in Othoca. Next to the church of Santa Severa lie the ruins of a previous building dating from the 6th to the 7th century.