The church can be found in the Stampace neighbourhood, overlooking a small square which acts as an enclosed church porch, close to via Sant’Efisio and via Santa Restituita, which define the spaces.
The building is configured on top of an early Medieval construction mentioned in a document regarding the visit of the bishop of Pisa in 1263; according to tradition, it was built on a Punic cistern, identified as the place where the saint was imprisoned in 430. The church underwent changes in 1538 after being entrusted to the Confraternity of the same name.
In 1780, it was completely demolished to make way for the new building in Piedmont Baroque style. The church is barrel-vaulted with single nave onto which opens out three chapels each side; while the raised presbytery is covered with a dome on a tholobate.
The facade is framed by Ionic half-pilasters and split into three orders: in the lower part, the portal with split curvilinear gable is flanked by two niches; the median order offers the same structure with rectangular window in the middle; the upper one, on the other hand, has a double inflection end point with spirals typical of eighteenth-century Piedmont.
The church is home to numerous wooden simulacrums of the saint created in the XVI and XIX centuries. The strongly felt devotion to sant’Efisio who, according to popular tradition, saved the city from the plague in 1656, is what lies behind the procession held each year between 1 and 4 May with different stop-off points between Cagliari, Sarroch and Nora.
