362 Milanese
city center was also excavated in the case of the Ospedale Vecchio, located in
the ancient Jewish juharia of the Catalan city. The information acquired from
these interventions covers a broad spectrum of themes and problems touch-
ing on the urban history of Alghero. Thus, these excavations can contribute
substantially to the history of Alghero, especially to the understanding of the
birth of the city, its walls and ramparted fortifications, the functional trans-
formations of its urban areas, its private structures, its Jewish quarter, and
domestic arrangements, as well the diet, commerce, artisanal activity, and
cemeteries that served the population.2
2 From the Sardinian-Genoese Phase to the Catalan Conquest of
Alghero
Over nearly 15 years of systematic research beneath Alghero’s subsoil, archaeo-
logical research has amply demonstrated that the city was newly founded in
the Middle Ages. Even if future research should bring to light some finds from
the Roman period, these, due to their extremely sporadic nature, are unlikely
to indicate anything beyond (occasional) inhabitation of the harbor area.3
Urban archaeology in Alghero has recently confronted a central histo-
riographical problem in regards to the chronology of the city’s origins; even
today, numerous historians of medieval Sardinia follow the opinion expressed
by Giovanni Francesco Fara in the late sixteenth century, which convention-
ally attributes the foundation of Alghero to the Genoese Doria family in 1102.4
2 It would be ideal to exhibit the archaeological data with the advantages afforded by
a modern museum; see Marco Milanese, “L’Alguer. Deu anys de arqueologia de la
ciutat entre recuperaciò urbana, politìques culturals i planificaciò,” L’Alguer 19 (2006),
pp. 9–16; Marco Milanese, “Alghero. Le trasformazioni di uno spazio urbano tra XIV e XX
secolo. Il progetto di ricerca e le campagne di scavo 1997/1998: relazione preliminare,”
Archeologia Postmedievale 3 (1999), pp. 33–88; Marco Milanese, Alghero: Archeologia di una
città medievale (Sassari, 2013).
3 Besides the stratigraphic excavations or retrievals conducted in areas of the medieval city
(concerning which, please consult the bibliography that follows), the area of the harbor’s
docks has only been the object of surface interventions. The possibility of an occasional use
of a harbor dock in antiquity remains to be verified.
4 Giovanni Francesco Fara, De chorographia Sardiniae libri dvo. De rebvs sardois libri qvatvor
(Paris, 1835). Doubt as to the veracity of this date is expressed by Angelo Castellaccio, “Mura e
torri difensive di Alghero nel Medioevo,” in Tra diritto e storia: studi in onore di Luigi Berlinguer
promossi dalle Università di Siena e di Sassari, ed. Luigi Berlinguer (Soveria Mannelli, 2008),