Francesca ROSSI
(Architectural Department, University of Florence, Italy)
Abstract:
The complex of St. Saturnino is the most ancient church in Cagliari and one of the oldest in Sardinia. It was built over a Palaeo-Christian necropolis, and was originally founded as a martyrium, dedicated to the worship of Saturnino, a young citizen of Cagliari, beheaded by the Romans for his Christian faith in 304 a.C. A new, monumental church was built over the ancient burial area around the sixth century, at the time of Emperor Justinian. It had a Greek cross plan, with a central square-shaped area covered by a dome. This design was inspired by other martyria, like St. John in Ephesus and the Apostoleion in Costantinople. After numerous changes, restorations and demolitions, in the twentieth century St. Saturnino has seen many renovations: some of them attempted to restore the church’s original structure. Thus the most recent ones have deeply altered the church’s shape and its archaeological surroundings. In 2013 the church’s interiors and exteriors have been digitally surveyed using photogrammetry and 3D laser scanner by the Architectural Department of the Florence University, in partnership with the Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences of the Cagliari University; the results have been a base for a deeper comprehension of the church’s structure, materials and historical evolution; also, they became the starting point for a planning proposal aimed to create a new dialogue between the church’s remaining building and the ruins of the byzantine and medieval structures. This poster will present the main contents of the survey in its relationship with the new proposal, making a try to create a new solution and getting out from the poor compliance of the actual intervention with the original characteristics and readability of the complex.
Keywords: Cagliari, Sardinia, Church, Digital survey, Representation