St Andrea's Church
St Andrea's Church,
The Church of Sant'Andrea, dating back to the 15th century, in Sardinian-Catalan Gothic style, probably stands on an earlier Roman temple.
Since the 16th century, when country festivals were numerous, the church was the target of pirate raids, so much so that in 1621 the viceroy forbade pilgrimages at night.
In the 17th century, the church underwent a major restoration. In 1793, the troops of revolutionary France landed in Quartu and occupied the church as a fort.
There was a battle between the inhabitants of Quartu and the French that resulted in the expulsion of the latter from the territory of Quartu.
The church has recently been renovated. The building consists of a single spacious rectangular hall facing north-east, the presbytery area is simply emphasised by the raised floor.
It is illuminated by the large mullioned window of modern workmanship open in the rear elevation and the small late Catalan Gothic rose window decorating the façade above the entrance door.
The roof of juniper trusses rests on variously carved wooden brackets on ten perimeter pillars. Each of the side elevations is supported by three buttresses. The right elevation contains some rooms that house the sacristy, while the left side is completely free.
The buttresses were therefore created as a function of an earlier roof, similar to the current structure of tinned wood resting on ogival diaphragm arches.
Of these, only the second pair coincide with the internal pillars, which, by bearing the weight of the roof alone, nullify the existence of the first pair. The current roof with its truss structure rests on the inner pillars and from this it is clear that the main roof has been completely remodelled. The main façade is designed according to patterns typical of Catalan Sardinian Gothic: it is concluded by a flat finial traversed by a moulded cornice and crowned by toothed merlons.
Unlike other similar buildings in this church, the terminal turns at right angles and crowns the side walls for a short distance, and it is probable that it continued for the rest of the sides as in the church of S. Ambrogio di Monserrato.
On the left side of the main façade is a fourth buttress orthogonal to the building. The façade of Sant'Andrea is preceded by a rudimentary loggia closed to the right by one of the rooms leaning against the façade and to the left by a small wall in ladiri.
The roof is set frontally on trunks of the same wood in a manner found in many loggias built between the second half of the 16th century and the first half of the 17th century in many Sardinian country churches.
A column made of overlapping late Roman elements is similar to the fragment of the column inserted in the masonry of the right buttress and another present at the base of one of the pillars.
The church contains other late-Roman architectural elements: three column fragments and a base overlaid with a Corinthian capital used as a holy water stoup, all from a pre-existing building or located in the immediate vicinity.
The internal dimensions of the nave are approximately 25x10 metres.
A special note concerns the park in front, named after the memory of Andrea Parodi, the great singer of the group I Tazenda.