VIVA - New Active Tourism Itineraries in Villanova

The underground Church of San Giovanni is located in the region “Costa Piras “, in the town of Romana. The consultation of inventories of the seventeenth century goods of the Commendam of San Leonardo of the Seven Fountains in Santu Lussurgiu, which was part of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of San Giovanni (St. John) of Jerusalem, reveals a little more information. Unfortunately it is useless to clarify the origins of this factory. Only in response to a first cleaning, preliminary to the campaign of excavation, was it possible to trace the plan of the rectangular building and to identify the foundations characterised by a row of large square blocks  which supported the perimeter walls.

The interior which is accessed via a stone staircase, is the result of the excavation under the walkway for about two and a half meters. It was possible to trace the original paving created from stone plates covered by a thin layer of mortar. The altar, leaning against the wall in front of the entrance, was created with mixed stones bound with mortar and coated with plaster and a monolithic slab found overturned near the canteen.

The environment was completely covered by layers of collapse, which probably occurred during the sixteenth century, as evidenced by pottery remains found and subsequently analysed. The presence of niches in the thickness of the bedrock and the estimated height of the church, for about five meters including the elevations, has led to the hypothesis that there was an intermediate walkway, at ground-level. The archaeological excavation highlighted that the church building probably exploited a previous environment, maybe Roman, as attested to by the remains of pottery fragments that can be dated back to a period between the third and the fourth century A.D.