Sardinia, Summer 2018
After Puglia and Basilicata in 2017, we went to Sardinia during the Summer of 2018. Even though we spent three weeks there, we had family with us most of the time, therefore photographic activity was sometimes a bit curbed —to the point that I decided to return on my own in March–April 2019, after my retirement, to concentrate on photography (those pictures will be uploaded later).
Today and tomorrow, I am showing you yet another chiesa campestre, dedicated to Santa Maria Maddalena, which is unusually sophisticated in its decoration for such an old and small Mediæval church in the middle of nowhere. The alternating bands of white limestone and red sandstone, the Lombard decorative arcature, the neatly assembled quoins forming a pointed barrel arch above the small door, all of that denotes a definite amount of refinement, and the spending of more money that we usually see where such churches are concerned. This one was built during the 1100s, as there is a written record of a donation of the church in 1205 by local noble woman Maria de Thori to the abbey of San Salvatore di Camaldoli.
The two “wings” that appear to form a kind of transept were added later, and are not nearly so well built. The church was closed, as all such churches are, therefore I could not go in and ascertain the use of those additions: sacristy, real transept, other?
Sardinia, Summer 2018
After Puglia and Basilicata in 2017, we went to Sardinia during the Summer of 2018. Even though we spent three weeks there, we had family with us most of the time, therefore photographic activity was sometimes a bit curbed —to the point that I decided to return on my own in March–April 2019, after my retirement, to concentrate on photography (those pictures will be uploaded later).
Today and tomorrow, I am showing you yet another chiesa campestre, dedicated to Santa Maria Maddalena, which is unusually sophisticated in its decoration for such an old and small Mediæval church in the middle of nowhere. The alternating bands of white limestone and red sandstone, the Lombard decorative arcature, the neatly assembled quoins forming a pointed barrel arch above the small door, all of that denotes a definite amount of refinement, and the spending of more money that we usually see where such churches are concerned. This one was built during the 1100s, as there is a written record of a donation of the church in 1205 by local noble woman Maria de Thori to the abbey of San Salvatore di Camaldoli.
The two “wings” that appear to form a kind of transept were added later, and are not nearly so well built. The church was closed, as all such churches are, therefore I could not go in and ascertain the use of those additions: sacristy, real transept, other?