IL SANTUARIO DI N

The Shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria. — To the southeast of the city, on the small hill of Bonaria, where a hypogeum with paintings and inscriptions bears witness to the Christian faith that Cagliari probably received before anywhere else in Sardinia, the Mercedarians had founded their oldest convent on the island around 1330. Not many years later, on 25 March 1370, according to the tradition recorded in a canonical process of 1592, a ship coming from Spain was struck by a storm while already in sight of the Sardinian coasts. To avoid shipwreck, much of the cargo was thrown into the sea. But a heavy chest, floating on the waters, swiftly made its way to the gulf of Cagliari. When it was opened, a beautiful statue of the Virgin was found inside, holding the divine Child in her left arm. From then on, it was venerated on the hill of Bonaria. In 1704 the first stone of a new temple, designed by the architect De Vincenti, was laid. However, the work remained suspended for a long time and was only resumed in 1910. The church, in Baroque style and decorated by the Sardinian painter A. Ghisu, was consecrated in 1926 by Cardinal Legate Gaetano Bisletti. The Virgin, whose statue had been crowned in 1870, was declared by Pius X in 1910 to be the principal patroness of the island. It is said that it was from Bonaria that the Argentine capital derived its name, Buenos Aires, brought to South America by Sardinian sailors. The shrine was heavily damaged by bombing during the Second World War. — See Pl. XX.