Urban Planning And New Towns In Medieval Sardinia 509
such structures, which were particularly widespread in the island’s center and
south, to the extensive appropriation of Islamic urban and architectural de-
sign that had developed during the prior giudicato eras, and which endured
at least in terms of crafts and construction traditions (Fig. 19.4). Contact with
the Italian mainland and Europe, which opened during the eleventh century
and prevailed from the thirteenth century onwards, did not produce the same
effect on courtyard dwellings and earth construction, as well as specific urban
Barthucius Sardus also worked with lutum (earth for construction) in 1340 in Palermo; see
Elena Pezzini, “Alcuni dati sull’uso della terra nell’architettura medievale a Palermo: fonti
documentarie e testimonianze materiali,” in III Congresso nazionale di archeologia medi-
evale, Castello di Salerno, Complesso di Santa Sofia, Salerno, 2–5 ottobre 2003, eds Peduto
Paolo and Rosa Fiorillo (Florence, 2003), p. 626.Figure 19.4 The town of Gonnosfanadiga (Cagliari plain) is structured by courtyard
dwellings and labyrinthine dead-end streets. The name Fanadig (plural of
Fundouk) preserves traces of Sardinia’s Islamic presence. (Ufficio Tecnico
Erariale, Cessato Catasto, Cagliari province, Gonnosfanadiga, detail, about 1920).