The ancient church of Santa Lucia stood in the Marina district. Damaged by Allied bombing in 1943, it was demolished in 1947 at the behest of the Civil Engineer in compliance with the reconstruction plan that called for the opening of new urban spaces, an urban arrangement later disregarded. It was rich in furnishings, marble works, sacred objects and paintings: some are kept in the Museum of Sant’Eulalia, others in the National Picture Gallery in Cagliari (especially “Madonna with Sleeping Child,” oil on canvas, 18th century). In September 1949 architect Adriano Cambellotti was commissioned to build the new church of Santa Lucia, radically shifting its zoning, with a neo-Romanesque design that traced two Roman churches-Saint Sabina and the basilica of San Lorenzo. In 1952, the Sanjust and Aymerich families made a gift of the land on Fais Street/Donizetti Street to the Archbishop’s Curia of Cagliari, and work began in 1953. The church was completed in 1954. The pillars of the nave are decorated by the fine designs of Duilio Cambellotti, father of architect Adriano. The mosaic in the apse, one of the largest in Cagliari, was made in 1963 by Franco D’Urso. Five canvases by Valerio Pisano, and a group of recently restored wooden statues dating between the 17th and 19th centuries will be on display during Monumenti Aperti.
