The church of San Leonardo di Siete Fuentes rises up among the vegetation, at nearly 700 meters of altitude, on the slopes of the Montiferru. It is situated on the road between Santu Lussurgiu and Macomer, in the thermal hamlet of San Leonardo di Siete Fuentes: the small village took its name during the Spanish domination, referring to its seven fountains, that have very light water with diuretic properties.
The church was built around the 12th century by the hospitaller friars of Saint John of Jerusalem, who took then the name of Knights of Malta, and during the 16th century built there also an hospital and two monasteries, one for men and one for women.
Between the 14th and the 15th century the church was nearly completely demolished and rebuilt, except a part of the façade, that we can see under the present one, and a part of the southern masonry. The following interventions of maintenance have kept the structure of the building, so that the church appears today just as it was during the 15th, quite well preserved: built of blocks of trachyte and basalt, on its façade it has two doors, the most ancient of which was walled up.
On the right side there are two crosses of Malta, and another one is on the bronze bell. The gothic style of the renovation overlaps the romanesque of the first building .The structure has one nave and a bell-gable of the 15th century.
One of the stories about this place concerns Guelfo della Gherardesca, one of the sons of the noble and politician of the 13th century Conte Ugolino from Pisa, whose family had huge properties in Sardinia. It’s told that when Guelfo knew of the murder of his father and his brothers,he defied the pisan troops and he caught one of the murderers, Giovanni Gubatta, and strangled him. But then he was defeated by the Pisans, and he wandered along the island, until he found shelter in the convent of San Leonardo de Siete Fuentes, where he stayed until his death.