The excavation in the area in front of the church of Santa Lucia was a collaboration between the Archaeological Superintendency for Cagliari and Oristano, the Architectural Superintendency for Cagliari, the department of Archaeology and History of Art and the Faculty of Architecture at Cagliari University. The 2011/2012 was part of the project to restore the church ruin and open it to the public, which was started in 2005 by the Parish of Sant’Eulalia, the Associazione Storia della Città, the Superintendencies and municipality of Cagliari. The ruins date to the early 17th century and are the result of the monument’s demolition in 1947. The church had a quadrangular presbytery, to the sides of which were two sacristies, three chapels on each side, and two small rooms in the first bay, one of which relating to the bell-tower. The church is mentioned in archive documents of 1119 with the name of Santa Lucia di Civita owned by the Vittorini monks. In 1263, it was the only church in the Lapola quarter to be visited by the archbishop of Pisa Federico Visconti. A rectangular trench was opened in correspondence with the presbytery, part of the nave and the second chapel to the north-east. Excavations in the presbytery revealed part of the latest phase of the church: the tops of the walls delimiting the presbytery to the south and east, the island on which the altar stood, the second sacristy and the steps between the presbytery and nave. Several patches of floor were uncovered from different phases dating to between the 17th century and 20th century. A number of burials in wooden coffins were identified around the altar. The two excavated contained male individuals, without grave goods, and were dated by the stratigraphy to between the first half of the 17th to the mid 18th century. In both cases, the skeleton was complete and articulated. An underground chamber was identified below the space to the south-west of the presbytery, where the second sacristy was located. About 5 m long, a small part of its barrel vault was preserved in position; the rest was documented by a collapse of bricks. The chamber was filled with dumped earth and only further excavation will provide any answers as to its function, although it was probably a crypt. The excavations in the second chapel on the east side exposed part of the latest floor in white and black cement tiles, abutting the perimeter walls and burials dating to the 17th century.

This season, investigations in the area of the presbytery and third chapel on the right continued and excavations began inside the area of the vestry. As in preceding campaigns, excavation in the area between the steps leading into the presbytery, the remains of the slate paving, the altar base and the remains of the terracotta paving abutting the vestry wall uncovered numerous burials. These were arranged on at least two overlying levels, and date to the 16th-17th centuries. The material inside the well in the right chapel was removed down to a level of 212 cm below present floor level. It is very probable that the well is much deeper and that its fill has great archaeological potential as it consists of a series of “sealed” contexts, unlike the later phases of the church. In the vestry area, the gradual removal of the layers, some of which filled ancient trenches, revealed the presence of a substantial wall ca. 60 cm wide, that ran longitudinally across most of the interior space, creating a right angle in the north-western sector. At the end of the excavation it was visible for 560 cm but its height is yet to be determined. It defined a space, which appeared to have been buried at the time the 16th century church was built. Lastly, three floor levels were exposed, whose stratigraphic and chronological relationships with the wall require clarification, although they appear to post-date the latter’s construction. The materials from these contexts have a narrow chronology, dating to the 4th-6th century, and includes numerous fragments of North African amphora, ARS D and burnished ware stick-burnished wares.