The engineer Massimo Rassu writes in the review 'Information for Engineers in the Province of Cagliari' and Laurence Gambella translated into English:

The monument complex of Our Lady of Seve or Cea - not far from the village of Banari, in the fertile valley bathed with the waters of the rio Mannu - is one of the few medieval monasteries surviving almost intact until the C20th, when several archaeological digs have taken place on it.(...)
Currently the monastic complex of Our Lady of Cea is made up of the Romanesque church, an closed internal courtyard (used until the second half of the last century for animal breeding and crop cultivation) and by several buildings known as "the Hermitage". (...)

The Church.

The building - a single nave with apse to the west - had two separate entrances: one at the side for the monks who entered from the monastery, and the other, at the front, for the faithful. The one on the side, to the north, is known as the "Holy Door" (A. Virdis 1986, pp 216-218).
The facade, in squared limestone quoins of medium size is slightly asymmetric, as the south side is wider, perhaps caused by the reconstruction process, aimed at reinforcing the building.

The facade is subdivided by a string course design which, with a slight overhang, breaks the homogeneity of the surface.

The lower part is divided by three arches as at the churches of Our Lady of Tergu (Tergu) and St Peter of the Cross (Bulzi).

In the middle the doorway opens, softened by pseudo-capitals crafted in a single quoin, with floral decorations, fixed onto the surface to support the architrave. The upper section is characterised by an release arch with lunette -supplying plenty of light, like the doorway - and by the moulded superciliary ridge flanked by small arches with lunette depressed into the wall's thickness, for merely decorative purposes. The main facade is completed by a bell-tower with semi-circular light.

The side facades have been largely refashioned over time. The one on the right, especially, facing south, has been entirely reconstructed without the openings which appear on the opposite side. Still on this wall, but nearer the altar, the traces of an effaced archway are visible, perhaps a connection system with other monastic environments. Higher up, arranged symmetrically, there are three small monophores - architraved and with double-splayed jambs which interrupt the smooth surface.

The apse, too, like the side facades, evidences a wall without pilaster strips, a coved frame delimiting the summit. At the centre a narrow double-splayed monophore opens. The present trussed covering goes back to works carried out in 1973, perhaps according to the previous design. It is not imposible that originally the hall had a barrel vault covering: the upper part on the left side, in fact, demonstrates a slight overhanging curve and the dressing of the stones in the counter-facades.The weight of such a vault might have caused the church to collapse, involving the south face. Other structures in the complex, too, had the same roofing system, such as the stumps of the vault's overhang and the arch resting on corbels in the area around the church, near the apse.

Dating

The building was completed by Tuscan masters active in t he north of the island between the second half of C12th and the first half of the following. One of the elements on which this date is based is the decoration of the portal of the main entrance.

Also very much alike are the door-jambs of St Peter of the Cross in Bulzi, at the time cathedral of the diocese of Ampurias (R. Coroneo 1993, p. 129) and the portals St Mary of Uta (R.Coroneo 1993, p.74), St Mary of Tratalias (Coroneo, p.199) and of San Gemiliano of Samassi (R. Coroneo 1993, p.235).

Noteworthy, too, is the south door of St Peter of Zuri near Ghilarzi, of uncertain date (M.Rassu 2001, p. 29). Finally, comparison has also been made with the facade of St Stephen in Magazzini on the isalnd of Elba - a comparison which would allow us to date the church of Seve to the second half of C12th.

The Inscription and the writngs of pilgrims

The concession of the privilege to collect indulgences, confirmed in 1248, is testified by the symbolic writings - fortunately preserved the numerous redefinitions which the church has undergone over the centuries - which are still visible in some quoins on the outside of the apse, which pilgrims scrawled in the sanctuaries to demonstrate their passage during pilgrimages of penitence (M. Rassu 1997, p.16).

On the outer walls various crosses have been carved out: The Tau crosses, spoken about above, on the right side of the facade, and a clearly visible cross in the right pier of the northern door, the already mentioned "Holy Door", whose original position is unknown. (M. Rassu 1996, p. 96).

While each of the first two develop on a single line, the third inscription required several lines:

(Cross) FRAT(RIS) GALDI S(IGILLUM) FRAT(RIS) GALDI BA (Cross) FRAT(ER) GUICARDUS DE MO(N)TID PRIOR S(AN)C(TA)E MARI(A)E ANNI D(OMIN)I MCCLX

The interpretation both of this and the other inscriptions raises several doubts, not simply about the difficulty in interpreting the unusual abbreviation "Ba" in the second line and that of the letter of the last letter of "MONTID" in the third. In the third writing, the reading "MCCLX" for the date is problematic because the final "X" is shorter and the stroke is ambiguous, compared to the perfect writing in the engraving of the other letters. (...)

The monastic complex

Of the monastery there remain the foundations, to the east, of at least five larger areas and two smaller, rather narrow areas, visible on the rectilinear wall. The monastic settlement developed around the cloister, which contained a well, manufactured goods destined for various uses and the church outside the monastery.

The planimetric design of these wall structures is not perpendicular to that of the church. Active from C12-14th, a a different moment for its construction, on a different longitudinal axis, is possible. The so-called "Hermitage", actually the living quarters of the monastery - was divided up according to the kitchen-refectory/dormitory schema, perhaps with a distinction between monks and lay brothers.

The buildings on the east side were built using stones of various sizes arranged in rather irregular rows, and joined together with mud mortar. The other areas, housing workers and craft activities, were constructed crudelywith techniques by locals and completed without particular attention.

In the north wing, an oven is still visible, circular and in the form of a small rock wall, then a water sysem, formed from a walled base with a deep canal, carved out of the rock to control the rainwater coming from the hill. A short distance away there is also a small quadrangular water-tank.

At the centre of the cloister there was a well, 9m deep, hewn from the rock and containing receptacle with a sizeable number of animal bones inside, especially by deer, and placed carefully at the base, an unusual metal container. Here and there inside the court, especially around the well of the original floor, there are traces of the original flooring, a sort of "cobbling" which is repeated in other places, though damaged and refashioned over the centuries.

Around the sides of the monastery there were the foundation structures of two further areas which would have completed the original design. Moreover, these were built skilfully, as the round arches, capitals, pilasters, bases and mouldings testify. From the medieval habitat of Seve, on the other hand, only a pile of stones remains to record the parish of St James (Santu Jagu), situated 700m south-west of Saint Mary's, in a plain on the opposite bank of the river.

To read the complete italian text of Ing. Massimo Rassu click here