05/12/2024: Wonderful church.
Simple facade, classic style, the most common in Sardinia but decidedly suggestive and fascinating.
It is not in Baroque style (according to what someone writes), but rather modern Romanesque, given the classic friezes and various details.
I also agree with those who also say Neoclassical. Architectural styles are often inspired by others and then introduce different details, but respecting the basic lines of the previous style. In fact, the basic structure seems decidedly Romanesque (the very first version dates back to the end of the 4th century AD - Elena, from which the name of the church, was the mother of Emperor Constantine I - was completely destroyed. The first reconstruction dates back to the 12th century, therefore still Romanesque. It was restored 1 and a half centuries ago, with new structural supports), many centuries later the Neoclassical was added.
But I read in the reviews that there would be similarities to late Catalan Gothic. Also for this aspect I certainly agree, in fact the Aragonese artistic influence is indisputable in Sardinia, therefore a link with Spain is more than plausible (In fact, several similarities can be noted for example with the cathedral of Alghero, and many other churches in Sardinia and outside the island, southern Italy and abroad).
On the other hand, many churches, frequent in Sardinia and in half of Italy, have had many architectural influences over the centuries, so it is easy to find different styles in the same structure, and the whole becomes even more fascinating and exciting.
But there is almost no trace of baroque at all!
The fact that there are some friezes and statues around does not make this church a dominant style. Baroque is a style very full of details and complex parts, and it is the variety of details and ensemble that determines its main characteristic.
Instead, the basilica of S. Elena a Quartu, although imposing and well defined, has in fact a decidedly linear structural and visual simplicity on the outside, exactly the opposite, the antipodes of the peculiarity of the Baroque (not that this isn't good-looking, never say this).
This at least for the exteriors. When we talk about architectural styles we are referring first to the exteriors, because first you see the church from the outside and then enter it later and find the styles and details of the interiors, and not vice versa. As happens in millions of churches, different styles coexist even harmoniously and overlap in many combinations.
This is great art.
Even the interiors have little or nothing baroque. The similarities with St. Peter's in Rome (rich in baroque, both outside and inside, but also containing 300 other styles put together, given the extraordinary history of the most important church in the world), if we talk about baroque, can be confused with its wealth of statues and details, but here in S. Elena there is more than anything else, in addition to the very evident Romanesque in the basic architecture, a clear inspiration from a Renaissance trend, which leads a few centuries later to the Neoclassical, and some trace of late Gothic, barely sketched.
(Perhaps there was confusion with Noto and Catania in Sicily, or Lecce in Puglia, where the baroque is like entering your own home, but it seems to me that in those parts the local history is very different).
These technical opinions aside, it is very true that there is absolutely an atmosphere of magic to what you see in S. Elena. Frescoes and artistic decorations of the highest quality, as well as a great variety of ensembles in general, including architecture, furnishings and interiors, etc.
(Then I also read other incredible things from someone, who talks about strong emotional sensations, which affect the quore...
I was so convinced that it was written heart... )
Quartu offers us this, just to understand that Sardinia also knows how to have its say, even a lot, while many people outside the island clumsily try to discredit it, perhaps because our Sardinian Christian faith is the oldest in the world, immediately after period of Christ
Thank you for existing, Basilica S. Elena
11/11/2024: Very important church very well organized for worship
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