Oristano, work completed: the cathedral returns to its former glory

Three years of work and over two million euros to complete the interventions of the roofs and the pictorial interiors of the cathedral of Oristano , the largest on the island. And so the temple has regained its splendor thanks to the restoration work .

Looking up, you can admire the renewed paintings on the vaults of the central nave, the transept, the side chapels and the walls of the counter-façade.

Before the restoration work, the building was in critical condition mainly due to causes related to water infiltration and humidity.

The Regional Secretariat of the Ministry of Culture for Sardinia and the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the metropolitan city of Cagliari and the provinces of Oristano and South Sardinia were able to address and resolve the problems, thanks to a total ministerial funding of 2,100. 000 euros .

The regional secretary Patricia Olivo explained that «a long and tiring journey but full of satisfactions for me, my Institute and the colleagues of the Superintendence has come to an end. Now let's give back to the archdiocese and the community of Oristano the cathedral renewed in its pictorial apparatuses, with particular attention to the most degraded and most precious ones such as the chapels of the transept and the seventeenth-century Archive".

The renovation of the roofs and the water conveyance system were fundamental, as well as the stone treatment of the facade walls and the side walls of the nave, to prevent further infiltrations.

The works inside involved the tempera paintings on the vault of the central nave, in the center of which is the valuable representation of the Assumption, the transept, the side chapels and the counter-façade, heavily damaged by pathogens.

Of great impact is the complete recovery of the coffered ceiling of the apses of the transept, with the restoration of the decorative rosettes present inside each element.

The art historian Maria Francesca Porcella explains: «For me the restoration of the rosettes of the apsidal basins of the heads of the transept constitute the flagship of this work. It regains its splendor thanks to the restoration interventions that involved the roofs and the pictorial".

Archbishop Roberto Carboni 's great satisfaction was expressed this morning during the presentation of the various interventions, during which the various components of the work intervened.