Macomèr, Church of the Madonna del Soccorso (Our Lady of Succor or Our Lady of Perpetual Help)

Narration:

Just like a beating heart, the history of many towns is made up of expansions and contractions, and it can be the case that some buildings, originally conceived to live far from the dynamics of the reference villages, end up over time being incorporated into them, changing, at least in part, their original connotation.

This is the case of the church of the Madonna del Soccorso, one of the oldest in Macomèr, once located outside the town and now at the heart of the district from which the church takes its name. 

It is noteworthy that the church of Santa Maria served as a parish church before Macomèr was moved to a higher and safer location, i.e. on the rock where the castle stands, of which only a few remaining structures are now visible; it was here that the parish church of S. Pantaleo was later built. 

The building, made of blocks of greenish tuff and stylistically pertinent to the architectural panorama of Pisan Sardinia, dates back to the beginning of the 12th century.

The original roof of the building, easily deducible from the reading of the façade, was a double-pitched roof with exposed beams.

The structure has a longitudinal plan with a single nave.

The semicircular apse faces east and has a vaulted ceiling; the half-columns set on a shoe plinth divide it into mirrors on the outside. 

The church underwent two restorations, one in 1609 and the other in the early 1980s, which, with the addition of the sacristy and the obliteration of some parts of the building, modified the original structure.

Bibliography:

R. Serra, La Sardegna, collana ''Italia romanica", Milano, 1989; 

R. Coroneo, Architettura romanica dalla metà del Mille al primo '300, collana "Storia dell'arte in Sardegna", Nuoro, 1993; 

R. Coroneo, Chiese romaniche della Sardegna. Itinerari turistico culturali, Cagliari, 2005. 

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