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Sardegna

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Vivere la campagna

San Gavino Monreale churches

Façade of the church of San Gavino

The best-known sacred edifice of San Gavino is the church of San Gavino, built in the 14th century by Pisan workers. The building has got a squared plan, covered by a cross vault with a Gothic, one-light window, adorned with capitals decorated with tiny leaves. The apse has preserved the original Gothic lines, as confirmed by the importance of the edifice during the period of local kingdoms. Indeed, the corbels of the apse are sculpted to represent four figures, perhaps featuring the sovereigns of the lineage of Arborea, including Eleonora of Arborea. At a short distance from this edifice, the church of Santa Severa, built towards the 15th century, shows a rectangular, three-nave plan, a hut-shaped roof and a sail-shaped bell tower, with one-light window. In the village centre is the parish church of Santa Chiara, built around the 15th century and later enlarged. At present, it consists of a single nave, with eight chapels; the roof is supported by transverse arches. Inside are a fine polychrome marble altar of 1780 and a painted wooden statue of San Michele, sculpted in the first quarter of the 19th century. Still in the village centre is the church of Santa Croce, built in the 16th century, with a single nave covered by a barrel vault, supported by arches. The church hosts a few valuable works, such as the 19th-century statue of the Virgin of Piety and the statue of San Sisinnio, dating from the 17th century. Just outside the inhabited centre are the church and convent of Santa Lucia, built in the 11th C. and frequented throughout the centuries by different orders of monks. Restoration works have revealed that the church was built in several stages, the last one dating back to 1700. In the inner courtyard, a cloister formed by five arches recalls the Basilian style.