Basilica of St. Antiochus Martyr

Located on the island of the same name in southern Sardinia, the Basilica of St. Antiochus Martyr is dedicated to one of the first martyrs of Christianity. This one converted to the new faith in Mauritania, at a time when a follower of Christ was like an island in an adverse sea.

The same sea that, in 1900, brought down the plaster of the building in a cloudburst. When the parish priest decided to have it restored, however, he discovered that the basilica was much older than previously thought: it was not from the 1100s, but even from the 400s. 

The history of the basement also never ceases to amaze, because the catacombs under the church were built on pre-existing Carthaginian tombs: a Christian burial place settled in a pagan one, a unique fact.