St. Lussorio Church

St. Lussorio Church dates back to the 12th century. It is a Pisan Romanesque building, whose construction may be due to Vittorini’s monks from Marseille. It is surrounded by the cumbessias (little accommodation for pilgrims). After a building collapse in the 13th century, the southern part was built again and the barrel vault was replaced by a timber roof truss. 

The Aragon-Gothic front elevation dates back to the 14th century. The Church is about 1.5km outside the village, located in the Roman burial ground. This is the area where St. Lussorio’s martyrdom took place. He was an apparitor, a civil servant who worked for the governor of Sardinia, Delfio. After his conversion to Christianity, he became a catechumen and he rebelled against the law, which forbade to practice the new religion. 

Under Diocletian Empire, in the 304 A.D, Lussorio’s trial took place: he was sentenced in Karales and led to Forum Traiani, in order to be beheaded. He was buried in a crypt, once employed for pagan water cults, which then became a Christian burial site and a place of pilgrimage. Between the 4th and 6th century, the crypt was enlarged and paved with mosaics. A Church dedicated to the saint was built: however nowadays, the frescoed apse and some parts of the mosaic are its only things left. After several processes of collapse and rebuilding, it became the current Romanesque Church.