The church of Saints George and Catherine belongs to the Arciconfraternita dei Genovesi (1591), established in Cagliari by merchants from the Ligurian capital operating in Sardinia. The modern church on Gemini Street replaces the Baroque one that once stood on Manno Street, built beginning in 1599 and destroyed by the May 13, 1943 bombing because it was near a military garrison. After the war, the then archbishop of Cagliari, the Genoese Monsignor Botto, decided to rebuild the church no longer in its original location but in the Monte Urpinu neighborhood, which was already preparing to become residential. The project was carried out in 1957 by the young Roman architect Francesco Giachetti, in collaboration with engineer Marco Piloni, while engineer Luigi Pani was in charge of construction. The cornerstone was laid on June 7, 1958, with the opening for worship on November 15, 1964. The new church of Saints George and Catherine dominates a small rise at the foot of the hill of Monte Urpinu; it has a central plan with an octagonal base from which rise very high paraboloid arches in reinforced concrete, four of which, alternating with solid masonry, are filled with enormous abstract polychrome stained-glass windows by Rolando Monti, an artist from Cortona with a cubist background. The church’s stained glass windows (the first abstract ones in Europe at that time) are divided into pairs according to the prevalence of warm tones and cool tones. The interior walls are decorated by painter Dino Fantini. In the Church of Saints George and Catherine, some sculptures and decorative apparatuses that adorned the ancient site, found among the rubble, including the marble bas-relief with the shield of Genoa that surmounts the entrance arch, can be admired, as well as, in the adjoining Museum of the Archconfraternity of the Genoese, a collection of paintings, silverware, robes and liturgical furnishings of rare value. The historic organ, like many organs in Cagliari churches, was also lost in 1943. Thanks to funds allocated as war damage compensation, over a period of about a decade, from the early 1950s until 1965, those damaged were gradually replaced with new instruments. The church of Saints George and Catherine houses the Tamburini organ op. 526 (1966). Small in size, it is located behind the high altar and has an elevation formed by intersecting reed wings bridging the parabolic arch of the apse portion. It has two keyboards of 61 keys, pedalboard of 32 and 19 registers.
