The construction of the church of Sant’Anna began in 1785, with the demolition of the old building included in the present area, but the consecration did not take place until 1817 and, finally, in 1938 the elevation was completed with the erection of the right bell tower. It is no coincidence that in Cagliari “sa fabbrica de Sant’Anna” indicates something that never ends. Attributed to the architect Giuseppe Viana for its particular volumetric layout, the church appears as an imposing rhythmic sequence of distinct blocks, grafting one into the other, giving the interior great spatiality, thanks to the skillful use of light that constructive function of space. A similar effect, on the outside, is achieved through the three domes of different heights and diameters. The elevation gains development in height by the flanking of the two bell towers, while the concavity of the central part has its stylistic reference in Piedmontese Rococo architecture. Some Baroque decorative elements are evident, such as the oculus decorated with volutes, on the portal, and the use of composite capitals. The ee Charles Felix contributed to the building of the church and wished to name a chapel after a member of the royal family, commissioning the sculptor Andrea Galassi to create a statue of Blessed Amadeus IX of Savoy. The work arrived in Cagliari in 1828 and is part of the purist strand of Neoclassicism. Notable among the paintings are the two canvases datable to the second quarter of the 17th century, with St. Jerome and with the Penitent Magdalene, executed by a painter who signed himself Raffaello Romano Cappuccino, influenced by Caravaggio’s naturalism and Emilian classicism; the Christ the Redeemer among the angels and the Blessed Sacrament datable to 1830 is the work of Giovanni Marghinotti. The wooden group of Mary as a child with St. Anne and St. Joachim made by sculptor Giuseppe Antonio Lonis belongs to the late 18th century.
Severely damaged by bombing in 1943, especially in the central dome and the right side, the building was rebuilt to its original form between 1946 and 1950 and today is devoid of all the ornaments–stucco, gilding, frescoes–that enriched it.
