The church of Santa Maria del Regno, built on a hill in the town centre, originally acted as the palatine chapel to the castle of the Judicate of Logudoro.
The palatine chapel was erected on the request of Donna Giorgia, sister to Gonario I of Torres. It was built by a workforce from the Pisa school, and its consecration date, 7 May 1107, appears on an inscription originally positioned on the high altar and nowadays to the right of the presbytery.
The facade with salients crowned with suspended arches is divided into five half-pilaster transoms; the architrave entrance and overhead double-arched window can be found in the central transom.
The square-plan bell tower is truncated and rounded off by a double bell gable.
The interior presents two sets of columns in three naves, covered by wooden trusses and cross vaults; it houses works of art which contrast with the austere black trachyte stone used in its construction.
Its longitudinal layout concludes with the apse housing the altarpiece on the high altar, a polyptych created in 1515 by Giovanni Muru. The thirty-one painted tables of the upper altarpiece represent scenes from the life of Mary and the depiction of saints and prophets. The wooden sculpture of Nostra Signora del Regno sits in a niche at the centre of the large polyptych. The lower altarpiece depicts scenes from the Passion of Christ and in the central table of the dais is the Madonna del latte.
The feast day of Ardara’s patron saint falls on the second Sunday in May.
