Cagliari 323
History and Topography of Cagliari
The southern Sardinian city of Cagliari sits along the coast of the Santa Gilla
lagoon and is now, as it was in ancient times, the main port city of Sardinia. It
has a long and intricate history up to the end of the Middle Ages. Founded by
the Phoenicians in the middle of the eighth century BC, Cagliari was probably
no more than a small emporium along the coast of the lagoon, but at the end
of the third century it was conquered by the Romans and named Carales. They
created a typical Roman city with public and private buildings around a forum,
which was probably located where the Piazza del Carmine exists today, in the
western district of Stampace.45 Archaeological discoveries made during pub-
lic works projects (e.g. the first railway) at the end of the nineteenth century
confirm that this square remained the political center of the town through
the late Roman period.46 The exact original urban layout is as yet unknown
(Fig. 12.1), but the presence of some seals found in the area suggests that there
were public buildings.47
“Un decennio di ricerche archeologiche sulla Cagliari catalano-aragonese: status quaes-
tionis e progetti future,” in Sardegna e Catalogna officinae di identità riflessioni storiogra-
fiche e prospettive di ricerca. Studi in memoria di Roberto Coroneo, Atti del seminario di
studi (Cagliari, 15 aprile 2011), ed. Alessandra Cioppi (Cagliari, 2013), pp. 243–278; Rossana
Martorelli, “Cagliari bizantina: alcune riflessioni dai nuovi dati dell’archeologia,” PCA.
European Journal of Post-Classical Archaeologies 5 (2015), pp. 175–199; Rossana Martorelli,
“Possibili indizi per l’ubicazione della cattedrale paleocristiana di Cagliari,” in Isole e ter-
raferma nel primo cristianesimo. Identità locale ed interscambi culturali, religiosi e produt-
tivi, Atti dell’XI Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia Cristiana (Cagliari, 23–27 settembre
2014), eds. Rossana Martorelli, Antonio Piras, and Pier Giorgio Spanu (Cagliari, 2015),
pp. 781–790; Rossana Martorelli, “Castrum novo Montis de Castro e l’origine della Cagliari
pisana: una questione ancora discussa,” in 1215‐2015. Ottocento anni della fondazione del
Castello di Castro di Cagliari. RiMe, n. 15/2 (2015), ed. Corrado Zedda, pp. 59‐93.
44 Many important studies are included in Marco Cadinu, Cagliari: forma e progetto della
città storica (Cagliari, 2009). See also his chapter infra that refers to Cagliari.
45 For the Roman town, see Anna Maria Colavitti, Cagliari: forma e urbanistica (Rome,
2003); Elisa Chiara Portale, Simonetta Angiolillo, and Cinzia Vismara, Le grandi isole del
Mediterraneo occidentale: Sicilia, Sardinia, Corsica (Rome, 2005), p. 216.
46 Andrea Raffaele Ghiotto, L’architettura romana nelle città della Sardegna (Rome, 2004),
pp. 64–66.
47 The objects have been studied by Paolo Benito Serra, “ ‘Exagia’ e ‘tesserulae nominibus
virorum laudabilium inscriptae’ di età bizantina dalla Sardegna,” Archivio Storico Sardo
36 (1989), pp. 52–53. On the late antique role of the square, see Pier Giorgio Spanu, La
Sardegna bizantina tra VI e VII secolo (Oristano, 1998), p. 22.