Urban Planning And New Towns In Medieval Sardinia 537
The line between the first two towers—for more than 40 years a “sacred” and
nautical axis for the Pisan city—determined the layout of the main streets in
the new neighborhoods. The first was to the west of Castello and dedicated to
Sant’Efisio; the second, to the east, was dedicated to San Giovanni. Their pre-
cise alignment shifted due to the practical necessities, such as the slope of the
land, and aesthetic composition.80
The development Cagliari’s four neighborhoods—the original Castro Novo
Montis de Castro, Stampace, Villanova, and Bagnaria—stimulated the con-
struction of permanent homes for the great mendicant orders, as in many other
European cities of the period. Following rules established in Rome, the three
main monasteries were located at distances of no less than 300 Pisan canna,
each outside the walls of the three neighborhoods, leaving the tower on the
southern corner of Castello at the center of an ideal triangle.81 As noted, the
precise layout of Cagliari’s streets and monuments indicates the application of
principles, which, although very popular at the time, could only be completely
and freely implemented in a new colonial town. At the new site of Cagliari, the
constraints of existing buildings were minimal and, apart from the significant
80 Previous readings regarding the birth of the city of Cagliari considered only its topograph-
ical forms and considered its growth process to be “spontaneous” rather than designed.
In fact, the Castello district developed independently from the hill’s ridgeline, just as the
two new districts have the same orientation, while developing on slopes with opposing
gradients.
81 In the Quia Plerumque Bull of 1268, Clement IV set the minimum distance between beg-
gars’ convents as 300 rods. From 1274 on, the Franciscans, present since 1229, built a large
new monastery south of Stampace, while the Dominicans were located at the Villanova
walls in 1281. In the fifteenth century, the third convent, belonging to the observant fa-
thers, is documented later in the eastern part of the harbor district. The Augustinians,
perhaps by following new papal indications and Aragonese units, lie 140 Barcelona bar-
rels to the west of the port (1,555 meters) from the Franciscan center. A Pisan barrel is
2.33 meters; the Pisan canna is a unit of measurement formed by four “arms,” equal to
approximately 2.35–2.48 meters. The identification of the orders’ European settlement
practices according papal instructions in the thirteenth century can be attributed to
Enrico Guidoni, “Città e ordini mendicanti. Il ruolo dei conventi nella crescita e nella pro-
gettazione urbana del XIII e XIV secolo,” Quaderni Medievali 4 (1977), pp. 69–106; see also
Enrico Guidoni, La città dal medioevo al rinascimento (Rome, 1981), pp. 123–158; Jacques
Le Goff, “Ordres mendiants et urbanisation dans la France médiévale. État de l’enquêt,”
Annales Économies, Sociétés, Civilisation, 25, 4 (1970), pp. 924–965; Laura Zanini, “Ordini
mendicanti e città nella Sardegna medievale,” in Le città medievali dell’Italia meridionale
e insulare: atti del convegno Palermo—Palazzo Chiaromonte (Steri), 28–29 novembre 2002,
ed. Aldo Casamento (Rome: 2004), pp. 72–82.