Italian is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. Italian, together with Sardinian, is by most measures the closest language to Vulgar Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is an official language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino and Vatican City. It has an official minority status in western Istria. It formerly had official status in Albania, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro (Kotor) and Greece, and is generally understood in Corsica and Savoie. It also used to be an official language in the former Italian East Africa and Italian North Africa, where it plays a significant role in various sectors. Italian is also spoken by large expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia. Many speakers of Italian are native bilinguals of both Italian and other regional languages.
A cathedral is a church that contains the cathedra of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations with an episcopal hierarchy, such as the Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox, and some Lutheran and Methodist churches. Church buildings embodying the functions of a cathedral first appeared in Italy, Gaul, Spain and North Africa in the 4th century, but cathedrals did not become universal within the Western Catholic Church until the 12th century, by which time they had developed architectural forms, institutional structures and legal identities distinct from parish churches, monastic churches and episcopal residences.
Castelsardo is a town and comune in Sardinia, Italy, located in the northwest of the island within the Province of Sassari, at the east end of the Gulf of Asinara.
Description
The current building dates from the reconstruction begun in 1597 that lasted until the 18th century. The cathedral is a mixture of Catalan Gothic and Renaissance elements, and overlooks the sea directly. The interior is on the Latin cross plan, with a single nave with barrel vaults, side chapels and transept. The crossing has a cross vault on four pilasters with sculpted capitals.
Gothic architecture is a style that flourished in Europe during the High and Late Middle Ages. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture. Originating in 12th-century France, it was widely used, especially for cathedrals and churches, until the 16th century.
A transept is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the edifice. In churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building within the Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architectural traditions. Each half of a transept is known as a semitransept.
The church has a tall bell-tower, topped by a small dome decorated with majolica.
The presbytery is raised, and has a marble balustrade. The apse, with a cross vault decorated with stars, houses the marble high altar of 1810, characterized by the church's main attraction, the Enthroned Madonna and Child, a painting of the 15th century, attributed to the Master of Castelsardo. Also by the latter artist is a St. Michael the Archangel, displayed in the crypt, now home to the diocesan museum.
The Master of Castelsardo was a painter active in Sardinia at the end of the 15th and the beginning of the sixteenth century. His name comes from a painting of the Madonna and Child currently in the cathedral of Castelsardo; other than that, the Master's identity is unknown: he has been associated by some either with Gioacchino Cavaro, a Sardinian artist from Cagliari, or with Martì Tornèr, a Majorcan artist of Valencian descent.
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.
Tempio Pausania is a town of about 14,000 inhabitants in the Gallura region of northern Sardinia, Italy, in the province of Sassari.
Olbia is a city and comune of 60,346 inhabitants in the Italian insular province of Sassari in northeastern Sardinia (Italy), in the Gallura sub-region. Called Olbia in the Roman age, Cività in the Middle Ages and Terranova Pausania before the 1940s, Olbia was again the official name of the city during the period of Fascism.
The Cathedral of Monreale is a church in Monreale, Metropolitan City of Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy. One of the greatest existent examples of Norman architecture, it was begun in 1174 by William II of Sicily. In 1182 the church, dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, was, by a bull of Pope Lucius III, elevated to the rank of a metropolitan cathedral. Since 2015 it is part of the Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale UNESCO Heritage site.
Parma Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Parma, Emilia-Romagna (Italy), dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Parma. It is an important Italian Romanesque cathedral: the dome, in particular, is decorated by a highly influential illusionistic fresco by Renaissance painter Antonio da Correggio.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Ampurias was a Latin suffragan Catholic bishopric in the north of Sardinia from 1070 till its suppression and merger with the Diocese of Civita-Tempio into the present Roman Catholic Diocese of Tempio-Ampurias.
Saint-Omer Cathedral is a Roman Catholic former cathedral, a minor basilica, and a national monument of France, located in Saint-Omer. It was formerly the seat of the Bishop of Saint-Omer, but the see was not restored after the French Revolution, being instead absorbed into the Diocese of Arras under the Concordat of 1801. The church is still commonly referred to as the "cathedral" however.
Prato Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Prato, Tuscany, Central Italy, from 1954 the seat of the Bishop of Prato, having been previously, from 1653, a cathedral in the Diocese of Pistoia and Prato. It is dedicated to Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
The Diocese of Tempio-Ampurias is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory in Sardinia, Italy. Until 1986 it was known as Diocese of Ampurias e Tempio. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Sassari
Piacenza Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Piacenza, Italy. It was built between 1122 and 1233 and is one of the most valuable examples of a Romanesque cathedral in northern Italy. The dedication is to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and to Saint Justina. It is the seat of the diocese of Piacenza-Bobbio.
Acerenza Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and to Saint Canius in the town of Acerenza, in the province of Potenza and the region of Basilicata, Italy. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Acerenza.
Acqui Cathedral is a Catholic cathedral in the city of Acqui Terme, in the province of Alessandria and the region of Piedmont, Italy. Dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, It is the seat of the Bishop of Acqui.
Pescara Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the Via D'Annunzio in the city of Pescara. The cathedral, dedicated to Saint Cetteus, patron saint of Pescara, has been the seat of the Archbishop of Pescara-Penne since the creation of the archdiocese in 1982. The present Romanesque Revival building, originally called the Tempio della Conciliazione, was constructed in the 1930s, replacing the medieval church of San Cetteo.
Amalfi Cathedral is a medieval Roman Catholic cathedral in the Piazza del Duomo, Amalfi, Italy. It is dedicated to the Apostle Saint Andrew whose relics are kept here. Formerly the archiepiscopal seat of the Diocese of Amalfi, it has been since 1986 that of the Diocese of Amalfi-Cava de' Tirreni.
Santa Maria di Nazareth is a Renaissance church in the town of Sestri Levante, in the Gulf of Tigullio in the Metropolitan City of Genoa. Located in the center of the old village of Sestri Levante, adjacent to the town hall, its parish community is part of the Diocese of Chiavari.
Civita Castellana Cathedral is a cathedral in Civita Castellana, central Italy. It is the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Civita Castellana.
San Pietro di Sorres is a former cathedral church, now a Benedictine monastery, in Borutta, a village in the province of Sassari, northern Sardinia, Italy. Built in Pisan Romanesque style during the 12th-13th centuries, it was the seat of the now disappeared diocese of Sorres until 1505. Since 1950 the church and the annexed monastery have housed a community of Benedictine monks.
Ales Cathedral is the parish church of Ales, a small town in the province of Oristano, Sardinia, Italy, and the cathedral of the diocese of Ales-Terralba. The dedication is to Saint Peter and Saint Paul.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Civita(-Tempio) was a Latin Catholic bishopric in the Gallura region of northern Sardinia.
Pozzuoli Cathedral or the Basilica of San Procolo martire is the main Roman Catholic church in Pozzuoli and the seat of the Diocese of Pozzuoli. It at the top of the Rione Terra and reopened for worship on 11 May 2014 after being closed since a fire in 1964.
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