What to See in Cagliari - Top Sights and Attractions

The Torre di San Pancrazio is a medieval tower in Cagliari, southern Sardinia, Italy. It is located in the Castello historical quarter of the city.

The tower was built in 1305, during the Pisan domination of the city, by the Sardinian architect Giovanni Capula, who designed also the Torre dell'Elefante two years later, as well as the Torre dell'Aquila, partly destroyed in the 18th century and now incorporated in Palazzo Boyl. The tower was part of the city's fortifications built against imminent Aragonese invasion of the island. The tower was built in white limestone from the nearby Colle di Bonaria, with walls up to 3 metres thick. It has also a gate, that, together with that of the Torre dell'Elefante, is still the main entrance to Castello.

During the Aragonese rule, the edifice was modified and used as a jail. It was restored in 1906, with the reopening of some sections which had been covered by other buildings.^[4]

Shrine in Cagliari, Italy. The Shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria also known as Our Lady of Fair Winds is a Marian title associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary as Star of the Sea and patron of sailboats. In addition, it is first associated with a Roman Catholic shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary located in Cagliari, Sardinia.

The Shrine is part of a complex of buildings which include the Basilica of Our Lady of Bonaria, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Bonaria and the monastery which houses the friars of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy. The Basilica and the other structures are under the administration of the Mercedarians, a religious order which has overseen the care of the shrine continuously since October 17, 1335.

Mary under this Marian title, is often portrayed carrying the Child Jesus, along with a golden sailboat and a candle in her right arm is invoked as the Patroness of Sardinia as well as Buenos Aires, Argentina, to which Pope Francis is also a known devotee.^[7]

Archaeological museum with Punic jewelry. The Museo archeologico nazionale is a museum in Cagliari, Sardinia.

The museum houses findings from the pre-Nuragic and Nuragic age to the Byzantine age. These include a large collection of prehistoric bronze statuettes from the Nuragic age, some earlier stone statuettes of female divinities, reconstruction of a Phoenician settlement, the Nora Stone, Carthaginian goldsmith examples, Roman and Italic ceramics and Byzantine jewels.

The museum houses a valuable collection of wax anatomical models made in Florence by the sculptor Clemente Susini from dissections by the anatomist Francesco Antonio Boi between 1801 and 1805. The collection is housed in a pentagonal room. Preparation of the models was funded by Charles Felix (1765-1831), the younger brother of King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia (1759-1824), and the collection was originally held in his Museum of Natural History and Antiquities - these were transferred to the University of Cagliari in 1858, then to the museum in 1991.

The museum itself was formerly an armory. After falling into disrepair, the building was rebuilt by Italian architect Libero Cecchini.^[8]

Necropolis. The necropolis of Tuvixeddu is a Punic necropolis, one of the largest in the Mediterranean. It is located in a hill inside the city of Cagliari, Sardinia called Tuvixeddu.

Between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC the Carthaginians chose this hill to bury their dead: these burials were reached through a well dug into the limestone rock (from two to eleven meters deep), a small opening introduced to the burial chamber. The burial chambers were beautifully decorated; there were found amphorae and ampoules for the essences. Of particular interest among the Punic tombs, the "Uraeus Tomb" and the "Fighter Tomb", decorated with paintings of palm trees and masks, still well preserved. Another famous tomb is that "of the Wheel".

On the slopes of the Tuvixeddu hill there is a Roman necropolis, which overlooked the road at the exit of the city. The Roman necropolis consists mainly of arcosolium tombs and columbaria.

The necropolis opened to the public in May 2014, during the XVIII edition of Monumenti Aperti. The archaeological area is large, it originally consisted of an area of about 80 hectares (200 acres).^[9]

Impressive Roman monument and amphitheater. The Roman Amphitheatre of Cagliari is an ancient Roman amphitheatre, located in the city of Cagliari, southern Sardinia, Italy.

The structure, built in the 2nd century AD, was half carved in the rock, while the rest was built in local white limestone, with a façade surpassing 20 m in height. The building axes measured about 93x80, those of the arena about 46.20x31.00. The surface of the arena was 1124.27 square meters. It housed fights between men and animals, of gladiators and other specialized fighters recruited in and outside Sardinia. It was also the seat of public executions. It could house up to 8,000 spectators, some one fourth of the Roman Caralis.

The amphitheatre was no longer in use starting from the 5th century AD and was subsequently used as a free stone quarry by the rulers of the area, from the Byzantines, the Republic of Pisa, the House of Aragon and others. The area was acquired by the comune of Cagliari in the 19th century and excavated under the direction of a clergyman, Giovanni Spano.^[10]

Theatre in Cagliari, Italy. The Teatro Lirico di Cagliari is an opera house in Cagliari. It is the main theatre of the city.

The Teatro Lirico was built in order to provide a large theatre to the city. After the destruction of the Teatro Civico, damaged by the shelling of Cagliari operated by the Allies during World War II, and the destruction of the Politeama Regina Margherita due to a fire in 1942, after the war there was not a suitable theatre in Cagliari.

The project, by the Italian architects Luciano Galmozzi, Pierfrancesco Ginoulhiac e Teresa Ginoulhiac Arslan, won a bid for the contract in 1967. The opera house was inaugurated in 1993. It covers a surface of 5,000 square metres among the stage, the auditorium and the foyer. Various rooms, like laboratories, offices, bar, book shop and restaurant were added after the inauguration.

The Teatro Lirico di Cagliari has received some important national prizes, in particular the Premio Franco Abbiati in 2001 for its innovatory programme. The prize was also assigned in 2000 and 2005 for Lucia di Lammermoor and Carmen respectively. Conductor Carlos Kleiber gave his last concert here in February 1999.^[12]

Historical landmark in Cagliari, Italy. The Palazzo Regio, also known as Viceregio, is a historic building in Cagliari, the ancient residence of the representative of the king of Sardinia during the Aragonese, Spanish and Savoy domination and now the seat of the Metropolitan City of Cagliari. It is located in the historical Castello district.

The building had been originally built in the 14th century and became the seat of the viceroy since 1337, at the behest of Peter IV of Aragon. Over the centuries the building underwent several modifications and extensions. Particularly significant were the 18th century restorations; in 1730, at the hands of the Piedmontese engineers de Guibert and de Vincenti it was built the grand staircase leading to the main floor, the rooms of which were restored in 1735 by della Vallea. The west facade, with the main portal in line with the staircase, was arranged by 1769, as evidenced by the inscription on the window bezel door that opens onto the central balcony.

Between 1799 and 1815 the palace was the official residence of the royal family and the court, in exile from Turin occupied by Napoleon.

In 1885 the palace became property of the Province, who established its representative office and oversaw the restoration of the interior, in order to adapt to the new function. In 1893 began the work of decoration on the Council room, by the perugian Domenico Bruschi for the frescoes and dell'Angeletti for the stuccos. The work was completed in 1896.^[13]

Botanical garden in Cagliari, Italy. The Orto Botanico dell'Università di Cagliari, also known as the Orto Botanico di Cagliari, is a botanical garden operated by the University of Cagliari and located at Viale S. Ignazio da Laconi 9-11, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy.

The garden was inaugurated in 1866 under the direction of Prof. Patrizio Gennari. Its first seed index was published in 1885, and by 1901 the garden contained some 430 species (of which 36 were killed by that year's deep frost). The garden was damaged in World War II but has subsequently been restored.

Today the garden contains some 2000 species, predominantly of Mediterranean origin but with a good collection of succulents and tropical plants as well. The garden is organized into three major sections:

• Mediterranean plants - representing the three bands of Sardinian vegetation as well as species from Australia, California, Chile, etc.
• Succulent plants - about 1000 succulents from Echinocereus, Euphorbia, Lampranthus, Mammillaria, Opuntia, etc. in a greenhouse and outdoors, roughly equally divided between African and American origin.
• Tropical plants

All told, the garden contains some 600 trees and 550 shrubs. Of particular interest is its palm collection (4000 m²), with 60 specimens representing 16 species, and a magnificent specimen of Euphorbia canariensis spreading across 100 m². The site also contains ancient Roman cisterns and natural caves.^[14]

Regional park in Cagliari, Italy. Molentargius - Saline Regional Park is a regional park in Sardinia, Italy. It was established in 1999 with the aim to protect and enhance a site of international interest, already included in the Ramsar Convention since 1977 because of its number relevance about stopover, wintering and nesting waterfowl bird species.

Molentargius in Sardinian language means "donkeys handlers", as the salt extraction was the richest industry of the Cagliari area for millennia, the salt being transported by donkeys. The park is a wetland extending over an area of about 1600 hectares surrounded by the urbanized areas of Cagliari and the other towns of the metropolitan area, and the waterfront of Poetto beach.

The uniqueness of this area is the presence of reservoirs of both freshwater and saltwater, separated by a plain characterized by prevailing aridity called Is Arenas ("The sands"). Areas with fresh water are the ponds of Bellarosa Minore and Perdalonga, born as expansion of rainwater tanks. Areas of salt water ponds include the production system of the former Statal Saline of Cagliari, consisting of the Bellarosa Maggiore or Is Molentargius (water storage tank evaporation), by the Pond of Quartu (second and third tanks evaporation), the other salting basins (saline of Cagliari).

From 1850 to the present, 230 bird species, belonging to 53 families have been recorded in the Molentargius area.^[17]

A ghetto, often the ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other areas of the city. Versions of the ghetto appear across the world, each with their own names, classifications, and groupings of people.

The term was originally used for the Venetian Ghetto in Venice, Italy, as early as 1516, to describe the part of the city where Jewish people were restricted to live and thus segregated from other people. However, early societies may have formed their own versions of the same structure; words resembling ghetto in meaning appear in Hebrew, Yiddish, Italian, Germanic, Old French, and Latin. During the Holocaust, more than 1,000 Nazi ghettos were established to hold Jewish populations, with the goal of exploiting and killing the Jews as part of the Final Solution.

The term has deep cultural meaning in the United States, especially in the context of segregation and civil rights; as such, it has been widely used in the country to refer to poor neighborhoods. It is also used in some European countries such as Romania and Slovenia to refer to poor neighborhoods.^[18]

Botanical garden in Cagliari, Italy. The Orto Botanico dell'Università di Cagliari, also known as the Orto Botanico di Cagliari, is a botanical garden operated by the University of Cagliari and located at Viale S. Ignazio da Laconi 9-11, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy.

The garden was inaugurated in 1866 under the direction of Prof. Patrizio Gennari. Its first seed index was published in 1885, and by 1901 the garden contained some 430 species (of which 36 were killed by that year's deep frost). The garden was damaged in World War II but has subsequently been restored.

Today the garden contains some 2000 species, predominantly of Mediterranean origin but with a good collection of succulents and tropical plants as well. The garden is organized into three major sections:

• Mediterranean plants - representing the three bands of Sardinian vegetation as well as species from Australia, California, Chile, etc.
• Succulent plants - about 1000 succulents from Echinocereus, Euphorbia, Lampranthus, Mammillaria, Opuntia, etc. in a greenhouse and outdoors, roughly equally divided between African and American origin.
• Tropical plants

All told, the garden contains some 600 trees and 550 shrubs. Of particular interest is its palm collection (4000 m²), with 60 specimens representing 16 species, and a magnificent specimen of Euphorbia canariensis spreading across 100 m². The site also contains ancient Roman cisterns and natural caves.^[19]