We know that Simala had a parish church starting from the mid-1300s (testimony to this is the citation from 1341, in the Rationes Decimarum Sardiniae, in which there are
the payments of the parishes to the papal headquarters were recorded) and that from 1592 the first mentions of the parish appeared (Quinque Libri Simala, book of the deceased), with the title to San Giovanni Battista. Located where the church of Santa Vitalia now stands, it retained the title of parish until 9 April 1636, as documented by the records of the parish archives. It is hypothesized that in the period between 1300 and 1400 the building had a Romanesque style and that between 1500-1600 it was reworked in Gothic-Aragonese style. During these phases, it probably had a “T” shape with a single nave and a transept. Over the years it was the subject of various interventions and improvements. One of these is documented in the will of Lorenzo Diana of 1675 (son of Majore Pietro and Iacumina Pusceddu), where the restoration of the roof of the church was arranged at the expense of his company. In the area, now commonly called Santu Giuanni, there was also the cemetery, active from 1617 until 25 February 1839. In the sources of 1681 (Quinque libri, book of the deceased) the cemetery of San Giovanni Battista is spoken of as a “place in where exiles, the poor and beggars were buried.”
