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The strategic advantage of
fortifying the Cagliari hills was first understood by Pisa, which had won
control of the city from Genoa in 1258.
The Pisan victors radically transformed Cagliari, modelling the
administrative and judicial systems after their own. The greatest change
was the construction of a wall around the hill, isolating the Castello
district from the rest of the city. Castello became the centre of public
offices and the dwelling place of Pisan citizens.
The wall was the main defence for the bustling Pisan trade activity. Walls
to better defend the port later surrounded the districts of Marina,
Stampace, and Villanova.
Pisan dominance was soon threatened by the temporal politics of Pope
Boniface VIII, who granted Sardinia and Corsica to Giacomo II of Aragon in
1297.
In response, Pisa reinforced Castello's walls by constructing two
defensive towers: Torre di S. Pancrazio in 1305 and Torre dell'Elefante in
1307, designed by the Sardinian architect Giovanni Capula.
Pisan concern was not unfounded. Aragon prepared to attack the city in
1323, positioning a fleet in the Gulf of Palmas as a starting point for
their siege.
In 1324, the treaty stipulated between Pisa and Aragon put an end to Pisan
rule in Sardinia and marked the beginning of Iberian domination. Three
years later, approval of the Coeterum sanctioned the
suspension of Pisan law.
The new legislation privileged
Catalans, Majorcans, and Aragonese, who were called to fill all public
positions.
Pietro IV of Aragon introduced a parliament modelled after Barcelona's,
uniting representatives of three classes, the Stamenti: military
(knights and nobles), ecclesiastic (bishops and high prelates), and royal
(city representatives). However, the Stamenti had no real governing power.
At first, the constitution of the Coeterum was not applied in a
discriminatory fashion. However, as conflict grew between Aragon and
Arborea, restrictions became ever more severe, banishing Sardinians from
Castello. Nightly, beginning in 1328, a harsh trumpet blast announced the
hated order for all Sardinians to leave the walled city.
A noteworthy aspect of the Catalan-Aragon period in Cagliari was the
formation of trade guilds. Various neighbourhoods flourished. The Jewish
community built its synagogue. Their own mayors and councilmen guided the
neighborhoods of Stampace and Villanova.
One of the darkest chapters in
Sardinia's history began in 1479 when Ferdinand the Catholic succeeded
Giovanni of Aragon under united Castilian and Aragonese rule.
While Spanish domination lasted, the various social classes heretofore
excluded from participation in government continued their struggle against
royal power to win appointments to public office.
With the outbreak of the War of Spanish Succession in 1702, opposing
factions in favour of the two pretenders formed in Cagliari. The English
navy threatened Cagliari by sea, and, in August 1708, an English and Dutch
unit bombarded the city. The English regiment occupied the city and met
with no resistance.
The Treaty of Utrecht
granted Sardinia to Austria, which governed until 1717, when Cardinal
Alberoni, a Spanish minister, sent a war fleet to Sardinia. The new
Spanish conquest lasted until August 2, 1718, when the Treaty of London
gave Sardinia to Vittorio Amedeo of Savoy.
The city's situation appeared static. Although its fortified walls had
been reinforced, they had not resisted the enemy. There was a serious
housing shortage. New floors had to be added onto the antique dwellings in
Castello, because representatives of political, administrative, and
military power filled all available space.
The most characteristic feature of the Piedmontese period was the
involvement of military architects in civil construction. Amedeo Felice De
Vincenti was the first to bridge the gap between military and civil
architecture.
The enlargement of the Jesuit College of S.Croce in 1735, changes in the
Viceregal Palace, the project for the Basilica of Bonaria, the plan for
the renovation of the salt works, organization of the dockyards and the
eastern pier, are examples of the military responding positively to the
new needs of the civilian population.
Another "engineer in uniform" exemplifying this new spirit was
Saverio Belgrano di Famolasco, who designed the complex made up of the
university, seminary, and theatre on the Bastione (rampart)
del Balice.
An important contribution was also made by Giuseppe Viana, a student of De
Vincenti, who substituted his master's Baroque style with the more severe
lines of Classicism in the church of Sant'Anna. Nor did the Piedmontese
neglect the city's fortifications. The unbroken line of bastioned walls
reached their maximum development during this period.
 From 1720 to 1847, and again
in 1861 with the Proclamation of Italian Unity, Cagliari experienced
various political events of greater importance than any occurring during
the Spanish period.
The events of the French Revolution found sympathizers among
intellectuals, but the Church spread anti-French sentiment among the
masses and portrayed the events of '89 as ungodly. Thus, when a
revolutionary French fleet under the command of Admiral Truguet appeared
on February 28, 1793, and the troops landed at Quartu, they were met by
Sardinian militiamen commanded by Girolamo Pitzolo. A bloody battle took
place on the S.Bartolomeo plain, in which the French troops were scattered
and forced to take to their ships.
The Stamenti took advantage of this victory to petition the king to
approve a request based on five points. Primary among them was the age-old
Sardinian problem of obtaining positions in government. Again no solution
was found.
Inspired by the Stamenti, an anti-Piedmontese uprising took place. On May
7,1794, the Piedmontese were conducted to the port, forced to board a
ship, and expelled from the island. Nowadays the festival Sa Die de sa
Sardigna calls to mind that event.
Although Turin swiftly responded by sending a new Viceroy, Marquis Vivalda,
the consequences of the revolt were serious. Girolamo Pitzolo, acclaimed
in triumph by the rebels upon his return from Turin, was named
Quartermaster General by the king of Savoy in an attempt to satisfy the
long-standing demand for Sardinian political equality. He soon fell out of
favour with the Stamenti and was killed by demonstrators as he was being
taken to prison.
After the Napoleonic Wars, three representatives of the Stamenti met with
Carlo Emanuele IV, king of Sardinia, at Leghorn. The sovereign had
surrendered to the French on December 8,1798. The three spokesmen invited
him to leave Turin and move to Cagliari, where he arrived with his family
on March 3,1799.
A year later, the exiled king
(Carlo Emanuele IV) returned to the mainland with the hope of being
reinstated in Piedmont. He conceded full power over the island to Carlo
Felice and abdicated in favour of his brother Vittorio Emanuele, duke of
Aosta. In the following years, and especially in 1812, the city suffered
greatly from famine and established a hospice for the poor.
On May 20, 1814, following the Treaty of Fountainbleau, the Savoy monarch
returned to Turin, turning over the regency to his wife Maria Teresa. A
year later it passed to Carlo Felice, duke of Genevese (who became king of
Piedmont on March 12, 1821 after the abdication of his brother Vittorio
Emanuele I).
In 1847, Cagliari's General Council petitioned King Carlo Alberto that the
Sardinian people "be included in the Italian union" and
"given the same rights as mainland subjects."
Demonstrations were held in favour of this "perfect union," and,
in Genoa, the king signed the unifying act that sanctioned the following:
the end of customs levies, extension to Sardinia of mainland civil and
penal legal codes, the abolition of the positions of Viceroy and the Royal
Secretary of State and War.
On December 30, 1860, a royal decree removed Cagliari from the list of
military strongholds. This opened the debate over the elimination of the
bastioned walls.
The final decision condemned those of Marina, Stampace, and Villanova, but
saved the walls of Castello. Cagliari became the first city in Italy to
have two urban plans, drawn up by the architect Gaetano Cima.
The end of
the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century were
dominated by the figure of Mayor Ottone Bacaredda, who promoted many
public works that changed the face of the city.
The fascist years in Cagliari were not different than those in other
cities. The headquarters of political parties opposing fascism were
occupied and resolute opponents were persecuted. Some, like Emilio Lussu,
were forced into exile.
However, the fascist period
was not completely negative. Due to the efforts of an enlightened chief
magistrate who served as mayor, the lawyer Enrico Endrich, Cagliari was
spared the piccone risanatore ("healing pickax", a
term used by Fascists to describe their policy of urban renewal) that
altered historic urban centres in the rest of Italy.
Cagliari's
port and the Elmas airstrip were strategically important for the
Mediterranean naval and air battles of WW II. The city suffered under
heavy aerial bombing which took a tragic toll in terms of human life and
destruction of property
In recognition of its
sacrifice, the martyred city was awarded the gold medal for military
valour on May 19,1950. Rebuilt, the ever-growing city of Cagliari has been
the capital of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia since 1949.
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