Sant'Antioco di Bisarcio, Romanesque cathedral in Ozieri, Italy
Sant'Antioco di Bisarcio is a Romanesque cathedral built on an isolated volcanic hill near Chilivani, close to Ozieri in northern Sardinia. The structure has a narthex with six cross vaults and a front divided into three arcaded sections, all made from dark basalt stone.
A diocese at Bisarcium is documented from 1065, and a first cathedral was begun in the late 11th century before fire damaged the site around 1080; by 1139 the bishop was recorded at Ardara. A graffito found in 2002 under an apse window records that Bishop Giovanni Thelle completed the main body in 1164. In a final campaign of 1190-1195 the Cistercian Magister Paulu, from Burgundy, added the two-storey portico called the galilea. The diocese was absorbed into Alghero's in 1503.
The name Bisarcio comes from the medieval diocese of Bisarchium or Guisarchum, documented from 1065 to 1503, whose cathedral this was. In the upper portico the chapter room holds a stone mitre over the bishop's throne, and in cold weather the room served as a fireplace hood. A 1476 lightning strike brought down the left side of the portico and the top of the bell tower.
The cathedral stands on a hill with open views of the surrounding countryside and is best reached by car from Ozieri or Chilivani. Wear sturdy shoes, as the ground around the building is uneven and the path to the entrance can be rough.
The upper floor of the two-storey portico, added between 1190 and 1195 by the Cistercian Magister Paulu from Burgundy, holds three rooms. The central one, with an altar and a mullioned window opening into the church, was the bishop's private chapel; the right room kept a stone mitre over the bishop's throne and doubled as a fireplace hood in cold weather.
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