St. Paul’s Church stands on a modest rise, the religious heart and acropolis of the ancient and modern settlement. Archaeological investigations attest to the presence of a sanctuary, which probably existed in the early Phoenician and Greek phases of the city’s life, and in the later periods Punic and Roman. The deity worshipped was the most important in ancient Olbia: the Phoenician and Punic god Melqart, or the Heracles of the Greeks and the Hercules Of the Romans. The head of the clay statue of Hercules on display at the Archaeological Museum is a copy, made in Roman times, of the shrine’s cult statue.
The present church, dating in its original form to the 18th century, is characterized by its dome topped by lanterns clad externally with colored ceramic tiles.
