Its only remarkable decorative element is a double-inflection end imitating the upper tier of the parish church of St. Nicholas. The walls of the church of St. Vitalia are in yellow sandstone blocks.

Like Palazzo Diana, the private residence occupies a large area between Via Trieste and Via Roma.

The layout of the building overturns the usual structure of the Campidanese houses developing around an internal courtyard, suggesting some modern house design. The main gate is connected to a secondary road, giving the court some privacy, like many other aristocratic residences; however, the noble floor of the residence faced the main road.

The main buildings develop around the large cobbled courtyard, whose significant size represents a unicum in Simala and in most of the neighboring towns. The large gate located in a curve and adjacent to the lateral square of the church represents the only element connected with the town.

The most important part of the building is the two-floors private residence, located on the opposite side of the courtyard, in front of the entrance. The architrave presents the carved date 1554, as well as the name Monserra Deana, ancestor of the family. The palace was built and expanded on a pre-existing very old palazzo, and the works ended in 1883.

Architecture

On both sides of the single nave, there are two chapels whereas the arms correspond to the presbytery and to the wide chapels of the transept. The central part of the body is topped by an octagonal vault, to which corresponds, internally, a rectangular space; the lateral bodies and the chapels are covered with barrel vaults.

The roofing system was rebuilt in the second half of the 18^th century; on May 14, 1777, Monsignor Giuseppe Maria Pilo bishop of Usellus-Terralba inaugurated the renovated monument. The current style of the bell tower dates to the same period: the pre-existing tower was replaced by a rococo bell tower, drawing on Piedmont’s architectural tradition, as also evidenced by the rounded edges, the small dome and the small flabelliform window on the square structure.

The façade of this church presents a double-inflection end, which is an architectural feature that spread throughout Sardinia between the late 17^th and the 18^th century, following the reconstruction of some important churches in Cagliari. Although on a smaller scale, this parish church overall reproduces the nearby cathedral of Ales, rebuilt in the last decades of the 17^th century, except for the entrance narthex and the twin bell towers in the main front.

Decorations and furnishings

During its reconstruction in the late 18th century, the church received remarkable marble furnishings, well beyond the potential of a scarcely populated town; this proves the wealth of the parish church, due to the probable contribution of the wealthier families in the community. In 1772, the Intelvese sculptor Giovanni Battista Franco was commissioned by Reverend Giuseppe Zuddas, rector of the parish church, to design the altar and the presbytery’s balustrade for 530 ecus. The altars of the side chapels, the baptismal and the holy water font were realized with the technique called marble intarsia. Franco proved a good knowledge of Simala’s social context when he granted a loan of 60 ecus to the priest don Luigi Antonio Fenu, in 1773.

The carvers Gallo and Antioco Diana realized the main entrance and the upper part of the baptismal font. The church’s collection includes silverwares, textiles and ancient documents, whereas the old cemetery included fine sculptures and sacella commissioned by the wealthier families of Simala; however, they have now been removed.