San Benedetto Church
The Church of S. Benedetto di Quartu S. Elena is located in Via Marconi. The right side and the rear elevation overlook vico S. Benedetto. The building has simple and essential lines with a masonry of incoherent or barely hewn stone bound with mortar and reinforced in the four cantons by robust ashlars arranged in staggered rows, according to a technique that appears in some buildings of Romanesque layout and in others built in a period of transition between the aforementioned style, Italian Gothic and Catalan Gothic.
The gabled façade is surmounted by a small bell gable in the centre of it, and on the right-hand side are the two pointed portals, framed by well-worked stones. Two oculi, one in the façade and the other on the opposite wall, give light to the interior.
The Church of St. Benedict is faithful to its original layout, probably erected by local craftsmen in the 14th century. Although the spatial context and stylistic motifs derive from architectural examples born between the last years of the 13th and the first years of the 14th century, before the appearance of Catalan Gothic on the island, the knowledge of this style's modes, evident especially in the fan-shaped ribs of the doors, presupposes a later date.
The church, the oldest documentation of which dates back to 1599, is only opened on 11 July on the occasion of the feast in honour of the Saint. In past centuries, however, it was loved and frequented, and numerous donations were made to it, as reported by some deeds of census, one of the oldest being that of 1639. In 1761, when it was already inside the town, a perpetual mass was officiated thanks to a documented donation by the Capuchins of the nearby convent of St Francis.
The interior is built according to still late Romanesque modules already in collision with Gothic, typical of religious architecture from the late 13th to early 14th century, such as S. Pietro di Ponte. In fact, like this one, it presents a single nave of elongated proportions, covered by planking on trusses and concluded to the south-east by a semicircular apse, the semicatinus of which turns outwards into an almost flat roof.
The only difference from the examples mentioned is the greater height of the presbytery chapel and the presence around the arch that surrounds the latter of a cornice of identical ashlars. The apse is reminiscent of the church of Our Lady of the Good Way in terms of manner and proportions.
The architecture of the two portals is typical of Sardinian churches dating back to the early 14th century, and they are resolved on the inside in a segmental arch set on high piers, both built on unequal ashlars. The lights, which present a sharp, incisive pointed arch accompanied by a frame of well-worked ashlars, show an evident Catalan influence in the tasteful fan-shaped arrangement of the ashlars of the rib.
Since no masonry revetments can be seen that would imply interventions carried out at different times, and since the ashlars in the cantons are entirely similar to those crossing the doors and the apse, it is likely that the building has not undergone any interventions over time that would alter its original appearance.
In the precise registers of the Causa Pia, moreover, only expenses for simple maintenance work are noted as far back as 1659. The same registers also report, however, another interesting and unexpected piece of information: the church had a 'lolla', built before 1660.
Source: 'Urban itineraries between archaeology and history' - Liceo Artistico Brotzu and Quartu Sant'Elena Municipal Administration
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