The church was erected in 1650 in the heart of the Villanova neighborhood, incorporating the pre-existing small church dedicated to the Virgin of Health.
The dedication to St. Maurus is due to the founder of the same church, Canon Francesco Gaviano, a devotee of the saint believed to be from Cagliari.
Today it has a light ochre gabled facade punctuated by pilasters and cornices. The brightness of the façade contrasts with the dimness of the interior, which has a single barrel-vaulted nave and three chapels on each side with round arches. The high altar restored in the 1980s is made of gray granite, and in the lower band are dark walnut choir stalls.
Of the side chapels, two are of special interest: those of St. Raphael and St. Savior of Horta. The first houses the solemn marble altar built in 1745 by the tertiary Andrea Ligas. On the antependium, rests the altar table with the tabernacle: in the center is a large niche with a statue of the titular saint.
The chapel contains fine statues by Giuseppe Antonio Lonis of very fine workmanship.
The chapel of St. Savior of Horta is the second on the left: there is a gilded metal reliquary with a scapula of the saint; at the base is a stone ark that holds his remains. Of particular interest is the cloister of the convent with the recently restored quadriporticus that houses a water collection cistern in the center. From 1661 the adjacent convent, coeval with the church, housed the novitiate and the Study of Theology. The church serves a spiritual care function in a neighborhood that has grown considerably in importance and number of inhabitants.
