Spanish Period

Expected time (h:m): 

2:00

Walk for: 

7 km

Difficulty: 

  • hard

Go to the map

From the Aragonese domination, the city will pass in Spanish hands and remained so for three centuries. An era of ups and downs, marked in the arts field by the spreading of the Baroque style and in the cultural field by the foundation of the University. Among the most valuable bequests, the retables, painted altarpieces with religious scenes by flourishing local shops.

Church of St. Augustine

Come in from Via Baylle (street) or from Largo Carlo Felice. Come in and ask for Don Vincenzo Fois. The parish priest of Sant’Agostino (St. Augustine) will take you through the history of the Renaissance church: its patron saint and its artistic heritage scattered among the houses and the churches of the city, which with passion and tenacity, he seeks to recover.

He will show you the cloister wall now inaccessible, the silvers, the classical frame surmounting the main entrance and the fragments of altarpieces rebuilt with the patience of a lover.

The Church of Sant'Agostino was built in the Marina neighbourhood around 1577 and according to the Renaissance style, to replace the original church, of which only the crypt remained, incorporated in the Palazzo Accardo. The main entrance, crowned by a stone frame finely decorated with classical motifs, is on Via Baylle (street). However the side entrance located on the Largo Carlo Felice, which leads into the courtyard of the sacristy, is more used.

Internally, the church has a Greek cross groundplan, surmounted by barrel vaults and a dome at the intersection of the arms.

 

Phone number: 070664236

Opening hours: 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. / 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Santo Sepolcro Church

The archangel Michael kindly observes the pedestrians. They seek him in the abundance of baroque façade with their nose pointed towards the sky. They seek him and find him. Then they look for the church, and they can’t find it. It seems like the architecture has played a joke on the church of San Michele (St. Michael), unique in the history of the city; its façade is rotated 90 degrees respect to the entrance of worship. This is how is resolved, in a unique balance, the contrast between the excesses of Baroque and Rococo styles and the austerity of the Mysteries, painted and sculpted.

An important historical testimony is the pulpit (from the medieval church of San Francesco, which was destroyed in the nineteenth century) where, during his visit to Cagliari in 1535, Emperor Charles V, attended Mass.

Phone number: 070658626

Opening hours:

Weekdays 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. / 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Holidays 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. / 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

St. Anthony Church

The archangel Michael kindly observes the pedestrians. They seek him in the abundance of baroque façade with their nose pointed towards the sky. They seek him and find him. Then they look for the church, and they can’t find it. It seems like the architecture has played a joke on the church of San Michele (St. Michael), unique in the history of the city; its façade is rotated 90 degrees respect to the entrance of worship. This is how is resolved, in a unique balance, the contrast between the excesses of Baroque and Rococo styles and the austerity of the Mysteries, painted and sculpted.

An important historical testimony is the pulpit (from the medieval church of San Francesco, which was destroyed in the nineteenth century) where, during his visit to Cagliari in 1535, Emperor Charles V, attended Mass.

Phone number: 070658626

Opening hours:

Weekdays 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. / 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Holidays 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. / 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

St. Michael Church

The archangel Michael kindly observes the pedestrians. They seek him in the abundance of baroque façade with their nose pointed towards the sky. They seek him and find him. Then they look for the church, and they can’t find it. It seems like the architecture has played a joke on the church of San Michele (St. Michael), unique in the history of the city; its façade is rotated 90 degrees respect to the entrance of worship. This is how is resolved, in a unique balance, the contrast between the excesses of Baroque and Rococo styles and the austerity of the Mysteries, painted and sculpted.

An important historical testimony is the pulpit (from the medieval church of San Francesco, which was destroyed in the nineteenth century) where, during his visit to Cagliari in 1535, Emperor Charles V, attended Mass.

Phone number: 070658626

Opening hours:

Weekdays 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. / 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Holidays 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. / 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Saint Mary Cathedral

The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta and Santa Cecilia is the main place of worship of Cagliari. It is the seat of the archbishop of Cagliari and parish of the historic neighbourhood of the Castello. It occurs as the result of stratifications of diverse styles: it was built in the XIII century with a Pisan Romanesque style; it was then promoted to the rank of cathedral in 1258; and during the XVII and XVIII centuries it was renovated according to the canons of the Baroque style. The last intervention was the construction of the neo-Romanesque façade in the 1930s inspired by the Cathedral of Pisa.

Opening hours:

Winter timetable : 8.00 a.m. to 12.00 a.m. and 4.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m.
Summer timetable: 8.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m

Related links: www.duomodicagliari.it

Martyrs Crypt

The eternal sleep, dressed in marble and beauty. The Cripta dei Martiri (Crypt of the Martyrs), located under the presbytery of the Cattedrale di Santa Maria (St. Mary Cathedral) hides 179 relics of martyrs, distributed in small niches made according the will of Francisco de Esquivel (Archbishop of Cagliari from 1605 to 1624) in 1618 with the collaboration of the most renowned masters of Cagliari and Sicily. The main room is completely covered with coloured marble and topped by a low arch barrel vault, marked by panes bearing almost six hundred diamond heads and rosettes. The two side rooms, smaller in size and with a cross vault, are dedicated to St. Saturninus and St. Lucifer.

Phone number: 070663837

E-mail: cattedraledica@tiscali.it

Website: www.duomodicagliari.it

Oratory of the Most Holy Crucifix

No need to be devoted to be touched by the sight of the Dead Christ, lying in the nell'Oratorio di SS. Crocifisso (Oratory of the Most Holy Crucifix). A gift of faith, bestowed by the lady Petronilla Murgia on her deathbed, in 1818. Her soul travels, satisfied, between the cool walls of the fresh structure erected, following her will by the confreres of the Most Holy Crucifix, where once was the cemetery. Arch-seat of the Most Holy Crucifix, active in the organization of the rites of the Holy Week, its interior contains "Is Misterius", eighteenth-century wooden statues, which are carried during the Friday of Passion procession.

Phone number: 070655635

St. James Church


A medieval past, a contemporary impact. It was Gaetano Cima’s hand, one of the most prolific names of Cagliari’s architectural history, to give a new look to the neoclassical façade of St. James, a church among the most impressive ones in the neighbourhood of Villanova. Flanked by the speakers of Souls and the Crucifix and dating back to the XV century, it is a journey of faith. It is composed, as stages of reflection, in five chapels on each side, which converge into the presbyterial area and the chancel, with a stellar vault and pendulous gems.

Phone number: 070662871