The country church of St. John the Baptist is located in the Septimer countryside just over a kilometer from the town and is the centerpiece of an extensive archaeological area rich in evidence of ancient times.
The building, dating from the 12th-13th centuries, is Romanesque in layout and shows a quadrangular facade surmounted by a bell gable; it has an elongated rectangular plan, anticipated by a large narthex and divided into three naves by a series of columns of
spolio
. In an excellent state of preservation, the church is mainly dedicated to celebrations in honor of St. John, which take place in June.
The vast flat area, which surrounds the religious building, is characterized by the presence of numerous archaeological settlement and burial evidence covering a very wide time span, from Prehistory to the late Roman Age. These include traces of numerous huts pertaining to a Nuragic village, which was followed by a large Punic and then Roman settlement.
In connection with the latter phase, mention should be made of the important mosaic, which cannot be visited at present, discovered in 1996 during planting work carried out within the church grounds.
The particularly extensive mosaic carpet, dating from the 5th-6th centuries CE, is composed of numerous elaborate decorative motifs and testifies to the existence at the site of a prominent residential building, the subject of numerous archaeological excavation campaigns over time, the results of which are still being studied.
