Chiesa di Santa Lucia, Gothic church in Castello district, Cagliari, Italy

The Chiesa di Santa Lucia stands on via Martini in the Castello district of Cagliari. Its unadorned gable facade has a simple portal topped by a blocked oculus. Inside, a single rectangular nave of two bays carries ribbed cross vaults with carved pendants on carved corbels; the narrower presbytery has a star vault with five pendants, and two equal rectangular chapels open off the right side of the second bay.

The church and the adjoining monastery were built in the 16th century, not the 13th. In 1539 viceroy Antonio Cardona gave the monastic complex to a group of Poor Clares who had come to Cagliari from Barcelona at the request of Pope Paul III. The building follows the Gothic-Aragonese style brought to Sardinia in the first half of the 14th century, whose island prototype was the sanctuary of Nostra Signora di Bonaria, erected around 1324.

The church is dedicated to Saint Lucy of Syracuse, and the adjacent former monastery, donated in 1539 by viceroy Antonio Cardona, housed Poor Clares who came from Barcelona at the request of Pope Paul III. The monastery buildings now hold a nursery and a primary school, so the complex is still in daily use beside the church.

The church stands on via Martini, the street linking the north side of piazza Indipendenza to piazza Palazzo. To see the building resting directly on the rock face, walk to the nearby piazzetta Mundula, which looks onto its rear above viale Regina Elena. The interior is a single aisle with side chapels; the two rectangular chapels on the right of the second bay are the ones to look for.

From the small piazzetta Mundula beside the church, the rear of the building can be seen resting directly on the rock face above viale Regina Elena. The same spot reveals a square turret, a remnant of the Pisan fortifications, inside which the church sacristy was later carved out.