Santa Barbara church
According to historical sources, Santa Barbara was a local martyr who has the same name as the saint from Nicomedia but was not the same person.
the discovery of the beheaded head of a statue, kept by medieval monks in this place, helped to create the traditional legend of the escapiçada (beheaded) and of the spring near the church that was believed to gush out on the spot where the martyr's head fell. Visiting this spring, you can still find lots of votive objects witnessing that this cult, "Sa Scapizzada", has survived; indeed, people still celebrate this feast at the beginning of July.
Santa Barbara is a small church in late Romanesque style. The original building dates back to the end of the 13th century. It consists of a small rectangular space with a single nave and an east-facing apse.
The fronton is divided into three parts by a pair of pilasters with adorned capitals.
Between the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th a west oriented brick colonnade was added along the northern side of the building. This was to allow the friars to reach the new conventual built in the southwest.
In this period the roof was lowered in order to give the building a level tile covering. In 1739 a new big chapel with dome, which housed the elegantly inlaid high altar, made the church larger. This led to a new liturgical orientation and the transfer of the small bell gable.