In its earliest documentary record, dating back to 1565, the small church of San Girolamo de la Murta, in the countryside between Capoterra and Poggio dei Pini, was donated by the archbishop of Cagliari Antonio Parragues del Castillejo to the hermit friar Francisco Boy so that he could “lead a solitary and contemplative life there.”
The simple single-aisle hall with wooden roofing, however, in its orientation along the north-south axis, whereas the liturgically canonical one would have required the altar to face east, would suggest its even earlier secular use.
Its transformation into a place of worship can be traced back to the transitional period between the Middle Ages and the modern age, when Western Christian spirituality rediscovered the allure of anchorage and thus the complex figure of St. Jerome, father and doctor of the Church, who spent long periods of his life solitary in the desert.
In 1629 the little church of San Girolamo in Capoterra was elevated to “canonicato di stello” of Cagliari cathedral, and as such demanized in 1867. Left from this time in complete abandonment, in 1893 it was restored by private individuals, to whom, by usucapion, title also passed.
This particular legal situation explains why until now art historians have eluded the study of its interior decoration, in which a carved and painted wooden altarpiece attributable to the Alghero painter Francesco Pinna, who died in Cagliari in 1616 and is considered the greatest exponent of late Mannerism in Sardinia, stands out.
