Dalla carta al legno: Antonio Felice de Vincenti e il progetto irrealizzato del nuovo santuario di Nostra Signora di Bonaria a Cagliari (1722)

Marcello Schirru

2022-01-01

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Abstract

In 1722, the Mercedarian Friars of Cagliari entrusted the Piedmontese Antonio Felice de Vincenti with the completion of the new sanctuary of Nostra Signora di Bonaria, a work started in 1703-04 by Ligurian builders, on the homonymous hill to the south of the city. With its imposing shapes and open to international influences, the project is accompanied by a wooden detachable model, on a large scale, which still exists today although subject to clear degradation. An original plan is also preserved in the Collezione Luigi Piloniin Cagliari, depicting an alternative proposal for the new sanctuary.The church will never be built in the lines proposed by de Vincenti and will see complete light only in the 30s of the twentieth century. However, the wooden model shows the profound culture of the author, due of the Piedmontese architectural school, but ready to grasp influences from various Mediterranean contexts. The affinities with the tower churches of Sicily, and not only, are striking, perhaps due to the previous ex-perience of de Vincenti in the island.