This temple is a symbol of the religious and socio-cultural integration of the Castello, the fulcrum of Cagliari, from the 13^th and 19^th centuries. The Basilica di Santa Croce can be explored whilst strolling through the heart of the city, upon entering into the medieval quarter from the Saint Remy bastion. After crossing the Torre dell’Elefante and going along the Santa Croce bastion in the direction of the Ghetto degli Ebrei, a stretch of a small piazza can be spied, preceded by a few steps and enclosed by the houses of the former Jewish quarter. Here, one faces the monumental façade of the basilica, which was reopened for worship in 2007 after decades of restoration. It is difficult to photograph the entire slender façade, given that one can only take a limited number of steps backward within the churchyard. The feeling of majesty increases once inside, with a single nave that is barrel vaulted and decorated with faux ceiling coffers by Ludovico Crespi.

There are three chapels on each side, also barrel-vaulted, decorated with baroque altars in polychrome marble, with sculptures and paintings from the 17^th and 18^th centuries. The presbytery is enriched by a high altar, guarded over by a wooden Crucified Christ, and closed by a semi-circular apse, on which Antonio frescoed the Saints Mauritius and Lazarus (1842). The façade is divided into two levels, with the lower one opening the portal, surmounted by a curved tympanum, and the upper one being distinguished by pilasters and bordered by two obelisks. Another peculiarity is the two bell towers. One is parallel to the façade, the other is near the presbytery, with a square-barrelled tower and an oriental dome. The history of the church, originally having been a synagogue, is intrinsically linked to the village, once the Giudaria of Cagliari, which reached its maximum expansion under Aragonese rule, before Ferdinand II banished from the territories of the Crown any Jewish and Muslim people who did not convert to Christianity (1492). The synagogue became a Catholic church and was granted to an archconfraternity, whose noble members were committed to comforting those condemned to death. In 1564, Archbishop Parragues, in order to promote cultural growth in the city, called upon the Jesuits, who were granted the church and adjacent houses, which became the College of the Company of Jesus. Thanks to the legacy left to them by the noblewoman Anna Brondo, the building was expanded and radically transformed. An inscription on the façade shows that the works were completed in 1661. At the end of the 18^th century, Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Jesuits and the complex passed to the State. Finally, at the beginning of the 19^th century, King Vittorio Emanuele I promoted the church to the rank of Masterful Basilica and entrusted it to the knightly order of the Saints Mauritius and Lazarus, to whom it still belongs. Throughout the centuries, the former college rather became the Monte di Pietà, a printing house, a Court, Court of Appeal, Faculty of Literature and, today, of Architecture.