538 Cadinu
stratification in the churches of Santa Restituta and Sant’Efisio in Stampace,
they did not appear to affect Pisan settlement choices.82
4.1 Iglesias
During the period of Pisan control in Sardinia, the city of Iglesias was a des-
tination for international mining interests.83 The city’s formidable enclosure
was erected from the mid-thirteenth to the early fourteenth centuries in view
of the Aragonese siege. The well-planned position of its towers meets the reci-
procity principle, exemplified by such Italian centers of the period as Torrita
and Montagnana, among others.84 Iglesias grew to include the Franciscan sub-
division and neighboring expansions, organized along straight road axes, and
assigning casalini according to existing statutes.85 Under the direction of the
Donoratico della Gherardesca, a number of new districts placed above and
around the cathedral of Santa Chiara superseded the curved ruga Mercatorum.
The political situation probably caused the change of name from Argentiera to
Iglesias (Villa di Chiesa), indicating that the new masters belonged to the pars
ecclesiae seu guelforum (faction of the church or of the Guelphs). The city was
officially known as Iglesias only from 1272.86
4.2 The Design of a Pisan Terranova in Olbia
After the death of Nino Visconti of Pisa, giudice of Gallura in 1298, the mu-
nicipality of Pisa reorganized the political landscape of northern Sardinia. At
82 The survey of the bearing wall system in Castello showed it was rotated in relation to the
direction of the Pisan city founded between 1215–1216. The remains of a preexisting build-
ing system were probably supplanted by the new city’s street system whose footprint still
remained. Cadinu, Urbanistica medievale, p. 67. Recent studies of the period agree upon
the hypothesis and refer to prior Pisan use of Monte di Castro, at least since 1215. Zedda
and Pinna, “Fra Santa Igia,” p. 128.
83 Germans, Genoese, and Luccans traveled to Iglesias in 1253 along with mining experts
like the Tuscan Donoratico della Gherardesca family, noble Tuscans who owned one of
the most important mining areas in central Italy and would also control Iglesias. See
“Contributo alla storia delle miniere argentifere di Sardegna,” in Roberto Sabatino Lopez,
Su e giù per la storia di Genova (Genoa, 1975), p. 195.
84 Ugo Soragni, “Montagnana,” in Storia dell’Arte italiana, ed. Federico Zeri (Turin, 1978–
1983), vol. 1, pp. 69–103.
85 “Di dari casalini a chiunqua volesse hedificare case,” in Statuti di Iglesias 3.30 (1302); see
Cadinu, Urbanistica medievale (2001), pp. 84–89, 174.
86 The political divergence of the Donoraticos had important consequences for Pisa. Count
Ugolino, lord of the city, governed Iglesias in 1284–1285 through an agent, Guido di
Sentate; Dante Alighieri narrated his adventures. For the history of Iglesias, see Marco
Tangheroni, La città dell’argento. Iglesias dalle origini alle fine del Medioevo (Naples, 1985).