Oratory of Rosary
It is on the right side of parish church of Saint Peter.
Its building, started in 1650, has to deal with the spreading, during 1600 and 1700, of religious Confraternities. It is common knowledge that in Sardinia this spreading began after Trento Council and had its apex during Spanish time, when laic, noble and middle-class people, craftsmen and peasants joined this basically religious institution and got an inner organisation. They were led by a priore[i], chosen among the most representative people and sided by two guardiani. A secretary wrote down the meeting records, while the tesoriere dealt with book-keeping. There were the obrieri too, who organised religious services and collected money around the village. We do not have news about the date of foundation of the Rosary Dominican Confraternity in Ploaghe. The only, poor sources can be read in some documents from XVII century: on 15th February, 1656, there was a meeting of the Confraternity to which priore Joe Pinna Pirastru, the Council and 5 members took part (Spanedda, 1989). On 25th May, 1654 the Confraternity was known as sa contraria de Nostra Senora de sa Rosa (Spanedda, 1989). On 29th September, 1659, the Confraternity took part to the inauguration of the Capuchin Monastery; also the Archconfraternity of Holy Cross took part to the procession. On the opposite of the Cross Confraternity, the Rosary one gave itself a regulation only after 1873, after several exhortations by monsignor Marongio (Spanedda, 1989). We do not precisely know when the Confraternity was dissolved, anyway it seems it was in the XIX century: its last records, kept in the parish archive, are about the years going from 1800 to 1836 (Spanedda, 1989).
The date when the church was consecrated can be seen in the Sardinian inscription on the façade: custa obera est fata seat perpetua D VII oustu 1651. From a will, written by notary Deligios, about the one thousand liras and fifty scudos legacy by Mariangela Sini Casu to the building and the vestments of the Rosary church, on 23rd May, 1653 (Paris, 1989), we get to know that the work was not finished yet and, perhaps, it went on until 1669. In a contract written by the notary Ligios on 24th July, 1669 between the priest of Rosary, Juanne Pinna, and master Baingiu, count of Bonorva, it can be read that, on that date, there were still some works to be finished (Paris, 1989); in the will, dated 1st November, 1691, of Don Miquel Dies Sini, who quotes a previous legacy by his third wife, Mattea Dies Tedde, deceased some years before, to complete the church façade with stone bricks (Paris, 1989), the noble exhorted his heirs to give to the oratory the money to build the façade finished.
The church is later quoted in 1862, when, on 6th, on 7th and 8th March, the mayor and the Town junta met in the Oratory of Rosary to sell, in a public auction, to the best bidder, the common lands of Coloru, of Prato Superiore, mandra di Otila and Ena Trinchizosa.
The church has a single nave with round roof. It has a left side chapel, a platform and a lunetted sacristy. Inside it you can see valuable ’700 Sardinian wood handcrafts, which are the altar, the pulpit and the beautiful Madonnina del Rosario.
After being abandoned for a long time, which spoiled both the building and the wood vestments, the Ministry for the Cultural and Environmental Goods, in 1983, under the direction of Architect Marilena Dander, decided to restore it. They took down the ancient outer stone wall, built up a new roof with concrete and bricks, renewed its façade. In the inner, they reopened the two round arches of the arcade. The floor was built once again with Naples bricks, the vault plaster restored, the doors, windows and wood vestments were taken back to their ancient splendour.