Contemporary Period

Expected time (h:m): 

2:00

Walk for: 

6 km

Difficulty: 

  • hard

Go to the map

With the entering in modern times, Cagliari grew always more as Sardinia’s nerve centre, also resulting in becoming subject of experimentations and revolutions even in its urban pattern. The great local architects’ pens, the fascism influence and the rationalist philosophy have left indelible signs in the entire historic centre. Everything bears the mark of novelty and efficiency, from housing to public structures, from school to service facilities.

Town's Hall (Bacaredda Palace)

Its facade, white, is perhaps the first postcard that opens when berthing at Cagliari’s port. Its polygonal towers, placed on the top, welcome in a city that for centuries has embodied the power. Opened at the end of the XIX century on Via Roma (street), the Town's Hall (or Bacaredda Palace, named after the mayor who presided over the construction) is still the beating heart of the institutional town. From the architectural point of view, it is a successful mixture between the Catalan Gothic style and the art nouveau, imprinted on the front. It houses some of the most interesting works of prominent Sardinian artists; they adorn the council chamber, the former regional committee room, and the mayor’s office. During weekends, it becomes a place of festivity along with the celebration of civil weddings.

Sardinian Railway Museum

The Sardinian railway history is present few steps from its present. The Sardinian Railway Museum, located inside the station of Piazza Matteotti (square), which was opened in 1879, contains more than a hundred testimonies and relics that reconstruct the development of the regional railway network since 1884: photos, maps and vintage designs, objects of the daily transit and more. Among the most interesting curiosity, the living room of the royal carriage, which was destroyed by fire during the bombing of WW II that did not damage the reduced-height seats, custom-tailored for the King Vittorio Emanuele II

Sardinia Regional Council

It is impossible not to recognize it with its severe lines between the bright coloured and contemporary Palazzata of Via Roma (street). As if to respect its role of seat of the regional legislative assembly, of place of protests and hopes to the Sardinian people, the Council was not allowed any architectural distractions. It was opened in 1988, resting on a uniform expanse of granite; the same material used in Costantino Nivola’s monumental sculptures placed under the portico. The graffiti imprinted on the exterior façades of the building were also realized by Nivola, but designed by Salvatore Fancello. The building is actually divided in three buildings: the first one, facing Via Roma (street), is divided into six floors and hosts the offices; the second one, on the rear side, facing Via Cavour (street), is seat to the Council Groups and to the Library; and the third one is located between the two buildings and hosts the assembly room, featuring a chandelier with 3000 crystal drops.

Luigi Piloni Sardinian Culture Collection

A luxury pastime become an invaluable heritage; perhaps Dr. Luigi Pylons Bogliolo dell'Arme, a man of culture and a passionate researcher, could not even imagine the estimableness of his collection and of his cataloguing; as the donation of his collection, which took place in 1981 in favour of the University of Cagliari and inaugurated in 1984, would have enriched the knowledge on the Sardinian art and craft. What is certain is that about nine hundred pieces, distributed in an exhibition deployed in seven halls, cover every branch of the beautiful and of the well done. Portions of altarpiece, paintings and prints, maps, jewelleries and handmade textiles all provide an accurate and valuable overview. It has to be enjoyed slowly.

  

Phone number: 0706752428 - 2424

Website: www.unica.it

Opening time:

Open only on reservation, in the morning from Monday to Friday and in the afternoon on Tuesday and on Thursday.

Admission fees: free

Santa Caterina Primary School

The landscape is breath taking. The Cagliari’s angels won’t be offended if you turn your back on them for a minute. To admire the elementary school of Santa Caterina, you’ll have to lean over the medieval bastion of Santa Caterina, in the heart of Castello. The inside of the three-floor building, projected by the engineer Tito Ciardi and inaugurated in 1910, is an important work of scholastic construction. It is characterized by a markedly classic taste, reflected in the gables and in the lintels above the openings, symmetrically arranged with the main entrance. The harmony between the various architectural and ornamental elements is replicated on the sidewalls on Canelles and Fossario Streets. It has to be undertaken with good supply of breath and to be spaced out by stops to admire the splendid panorama.

Monumental Cemetery of Bonaria

Raised up on a Punic necropolis, the cemetery took on its current appearance in 1829 thanks to the expansion made by Gaetano Cima. It fascinates visitors from around the world with its rich monuments and its Gothic legends.

Surrounded by the cypresses’ silent foliage, it is said to host famous ghosts: the Veiled Lady is haunting the alleys stretching her white hands towards passers-by, the tormented spirit of Gaston plays with the plush cats that live in the uninhabited tombs, while the small Efisino, immortalized by Giuseppe Sartorio, sleeps the eternal rest in the chapel along the main wall.

Phone number: 070300205

 

This element belongs to the categories:

Cemeteries’ monuments

 

Opening hours

Winter: Tue - Sun 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and on Thursday 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Summer: Tue - Sun 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and on Thursday 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Closed on Mondays

 

Admission fee: Free

Archives

If you put them all in a row, the papers of the State Archives would cover a distance of 8 kilometres. Books, envelopes, loose papers, parchments, maps and registers are only certain typologies of the patrimony collected since 1332. After its creation by Alfonso IV, King of Aragon, it grew up, piece by piece, closely connected to the successive rulers, who have left traces in the records and have been later integrated with the acquisition of important private archives. The current seat of the archives, which opened in 1927 with the standards of the modern construction industry, continues to receive the documents from governmental offices, relating to businesses concluded over 40 years ago.

Phone number: 070 669450 / 070 665772

Website: www.archiviodistatocagliari.it

Email: as-ca@beniculturali.it

Exma'

Every Octobers, it replenishes itself of joy, children and books. The festival Tuttestorie is just one of the cultural events hosted at the Exma', or old slaughterhouse, built between 1845 and 1852. First among the service buildings constructed outside the city walls, today, it is a spacious and versatile structure in the heart of the city. It was restored definitively in the early 90s by the architect Libero Cecchini, after a stasis period as a municipal deposit after that the slaughterhouse has been moved to its new premises in via Po (street). The bull-like protomes, set along the perimeter of the main building, recall -not intimidating anymore - the original destination.

Inside, it houses the permanent graphic collection Nicola Valley.

Phone number: 070 666399

E-mail: exma@camuweb.it

Website: www.camuweb.it

Opening hours:

Winter: Tuesday to Sunday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Closed on Mondays.

Summer: Tuesday to Sunday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. / 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Closed on Mondays.

Riva Primary School

Throngs of students have struggled over its bench, played in the courtyard and enjoyed pizzas by the slice in the near square. It is the core of many memories; the elementary school Alberto Riva Villasanta, in Piazza Garibaldi (square), was completed in 1930 after nearly two decades of work. It was dedicated to the young fellow fallen shortly before the end of the WWI. Its appearance meets the requirements of the scholastic construction of the time, which used to alternate neoclassical elements with local materials, in a play of volumes and harmonious colours. The central block is accessible by a large staircase on the bustling Piazza Garibaldi (square). The area behind and its daily life, perched on the Villanova hills, are seizable from the sides.

Villa Muscas

Wine lovers cannot skip this stop. Villa Muscas is a building with monastic influence that hosts the Centre of Rural Culture, which gives an overview on the rural tradition of the island. It also hosts a wine collection with more than 800 bottles of Sardinian wines of the 1900s. It still exudes an air of hard work and effort in the great courtyard, where are located machinery of industrial production, and in the six rooms located on the ground floor, where the tour continues between systems and objects for land working and agro-processing. The journey into the past ends with a visit to the three rooms in the cloister; two are dedicated to winemaking and to distillation.

Phone number: 070487894

E-mail: villamuscas@email.it

Website: www.villamuscas.it