326 Martorelli
fortification of Cagliari, which surrounded the town at least until the end of
the seventh century BC.51
New information comes from the more recent archaeological excava-
tions made between 1990 and 2008 under the church of Sant’Eulalia in the La
Marina district.52 The Catalans who occupied Cagliari erected their national
church, Sant’Eulalia (a young female martyr from fourth-century Spain and
patron saint of Barcelona), concurrent with their redistricting of the city, in
which La Marina was created, and a road-building project.53 The church was
rebuilt in sixteenth-century Spanish Gothic style, but under the main floor
of Sant’Eulalia the first traces of life on the site predate the third century BC,
when a stone quarry, which was used to cut stone for public or private build-
ings, occupied the site. The quarry was covered by earth and a small hoard that
contained a large quantity of ceramics, objects, and a group of coins dating
from the third century BC to the late Roman period. When the hoard was de-
stroyed, a white layer of limestone was laid down to pave a late antique road,
larger than the one that still exists (Fig. 12.3).54
A large porticus, contemporary with the road, was also discovered, with col-
umns on one side and a wall on the other, paved with little marble fragments
and pieces of stone, and covered by a roof in brick, with antefixes at the end.
The porticus was visible for 24 m, positioned between the northern hill and the
coast.55 The road and the porticus changed Cagliari’s urban plan, extending the
town out to the east and creating a new district, where few traces of previous
life were found. This new quarter was in the vicinity of an earlier Christian
cemetery and the church of the martyr Saturninus.56 It is possible that the
Christian community created the need for this enlargement.
The walls of the portico collapsed and part of it was restored: a new wall
in the middle blocked the portico on the southern side and big stones closed
51 Martorelli, “Castrum novo Montis de Castro e l’origine della Cagliari pisana”; Martorelli and
Mureddu, “Cagliari: persistenze e spostamenti del centro abitato fra VIII e XI secolo.”
52 Martorelli, “Archeologia urbana a Cagliari,” pp. 223–224.
53 Maria Bonaria Urban, Cagliari fra Tre e Quattrocento (Cagliari, 2000), p. 266.
54 Cagliari. Le radici di Marina., pp. 34–38; Martorelli and Mureddu, eds. “Scavi sotto la chie-
sa di S. Eulalia a Cagliari,” pp. 284–285; Martorelli, Mureddu, Pinna, and Sanna, “Nuovi
dati sulla topografia di Cagliari,” pp. 373, 377; Martorelli, “Un decennio di ricerche archeo-
logiche sulla Cagliari catalano-aragonese”; Martorelli, “Cagliari bizantina: alcune rifles-
sioni dai nuovi dati dell’archeologia.”
55 Martorelli, Mureddu, Pinna, and Sanna, “Nuovi dati sulla topografia di Cagliari,”
pp. 377–381.
56 For further information, see Roberto Coroneo, Arte in Sardegna dal IV alla metà dell’XI
secolo (Cagliari, 2011), pp. 108–134.