Chiesa di Santa Restituta, Baroque church and religious museum in Cagliari, Italy

The Chiesa di Santa Restituta faces the small piazzetta Santa Restituta between via Sant'Efisio and the street of the same name in Cagliari's Stampace district. Its facade ends in a double-curved gable known as a "carabiniere's hat", and the portal carries a broken curved pediment. Inside is a single barrel-vaulted nave with three chapels per side and a raised presbytery; the crypt, entered from via Sant'Efisio, holds a statue of the saint datable to around the 5th century, traces of a medieval fresco of John the Baptist and altars cut into the rock.

The church was built in the 17th century on the legacy of Salvatore Mostallino, protomedic of the Kingdom of Sardinia, who died in 1636. It stands on a hypogeum used by Punic and Roman communities and, from the first Christian centuries, as a rock church. In the 17th century, excavations for relics were tied to the dispute between the archbishops of Cagliari and Sassari over the primacy of Sardinia and Corsica. The crypt later served as a limestone quarry, a burial place, and a shelter during World War II.

Popular tradition holds that the crypt is where Saint Restituta, mother of Saint Eusebius of Vercelli, was imprisoned and martyred. Five saints bear the name Restituta, but only two can be linked to Cagliari: the Cagliari-born martyr and an African saint whose relics arrived in the city in the 5th century. The church was reopened for worship in 2017 after restoration.

The location is accessible on foot, though visiting hours are limited and vary throughout the week. It is wise to check current opening times beforehand, as schedules may change with seasons.

The crypt was used as a limestone quarry, then as a burial place by an Orthodox community that later abandoned it, and again when exiles from Africa brought the relics of the African Restituta. During the Second World War it served as an air-raid shelter.