From the Byzantine period, dating from the 10th century, according to recent studies, the church could be dated as far back as the 7th-6th centuries. It is a building of worship of considerable historical and archaeological interest, located on a rise close to the valley where the rio Tattinu flows.
The small church measures 10×9 m. and its plan is four-sided in the shape of a Greek cross. It consists of regular arms, one of which was rebuilt in the early twentieth century because it allegedly collapsed. This arm highlights a small bell gable, and the central part of the building is surmounted by a hemispherical barrel vault. The altar is located on the western side, while the entrances open on the southern and western sides. The exterior masonry is composed mainly of irregular local stones of a limestone and schist nature; at the corners, however, volcanic stones of non-local origin are used. These turn out to be cut and worked with greater regularity and consist of medium-sized blocks. The only decoration on the façade is a sober cornice, formed by rough protruding stones that is set under the sloping roof that runs the length of the building. The small size is reminiscent of other small churches in Sardinia built in the second half of the 1st millennium A.D. Externally, the church takes on a truncated pyramid shape surmounted by a conoid dome. The period of construction is uncertain. The construction possibly dates back to the time of the exodus of monks from the East in the 6th and 7th centuries due to the expansion of Islamism.
The monks also built inland safer from raids both churches and convents. The presence of “furriadroxius,” small urban agglomerations in the vicinity, would suggest that monks presumably Carmelites linked in a special way to the cult of St. Elijah the Prophet lived there. A restoration was carried out in the 1990s and the remains of clergymen buried in the interior arrangement were found, then moved into brass cases and buried inside the church.
