La Chiesa parrocchiale di Nostra Signora delle Grazie (Parish Church of Our Lady of Graces)

Sanluri, though a fairly big village, has just one Parish Church, dedicated to “Our Lady of Graces”, the patron saint of Sanluri, who is celebrated every year on May 31st.

The Parish Church is the result of the reconstruction of an earlier 16th-century church (whose only remains are the lower section of the late Gothic bell tower) in different stages since 1781, under the supervision of the former Jesuit father Carlo Maino with the assistance of Antonio Ignazio Carta. Part of the works was completed in 1786 and the church, though not finished yet, was consecrated.

Right from the outside, you can see some late Baroque architectural features such as the circular swan-neck pediment held by columns, the ornamental mouldings, the empty niches and the belfry with its little octagonal dome as a finishing touch.

The same ornamental style can also be found once you step in, on the walls of the interior spaces. The nave and the two aisles that lead to the central altar look abruptly broken up by a transept surmounted by a big circular dome on a polygonal tambour.

In addition to the altarpieces by Raffaele Arui, other valuable works of art include a painting by Antonio Caboni (1847 circa) which is in the Cappella delle Anime. Noteworthy are also two 17th-century works with scenes from the life of St Anthony and the reredos of St Anne, a late 16th-century polyptych, a tempera on wood painted in 1576, probably by a painter of the School of the Sardinia-born Antioco Mainas.