Basilica della Santissima Trinità di Saccargia

The abbey church of Santissima Trinità di Saccargia, founded in 1101 in Sardinia's Logudoro region, stands alongside San Pietro di Sorres as the finest example of 12th-century Romanesque-Pisan architecture on the island. Its defining feature is the alternating bands of dark basalt and pale limestone — a distinctly Pisan technique introduced to Sardinia by Camaldolese monks who had close ties to the powerful maritime republic of Pisa. The monastery that once surrounded it has entirely vanished, leaving the church and its slender bell tower as solitary survivors in a quiet valley between Ploaghe and Codrongianos. Protected as an Italian national monument and open to visitors for a small fee, it rewards those willing to seek out medieval sacred architecture well beyond the island's tourist mainstream.