About one-fifth of Sardinia’s
land is used for agriculture, earning it a reputation as Italy’s other
farmland. Tomatoes, artichokes, citrus fruits and olives are some of its
primary crops. And because Sardinia can’t call itself Italian without producing
wine, lush vineyards blanket its hillsides. Cork oak trees are prevalent too,
convenient for bottling wine and olive oil. The island has also long been a
Mediterranean crossroads, with many civilizations making their mark. Their
remains dot the landscape, particularly in Cagliari, the capital carved from
limestone. Here, the Castello quarter is home to a Roman amphitheater and the
subterranean Cathedral of St. Mary, a Pisan relic. Cagliari gleams in the
Sardinian sun, inspiring D.H. Lawrence to call it the “white Jerusalem.”
Today we were supposed to take the included
tour of the city of Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia. However, we decided we
could see what they were going to see and more just by taking the shuttle into
town and doing our own walking tour. And, it turned out to be really
great. Cagliari is very much like
Valetta in Malta. It is very hilly and an old fortified city.
Our first planned stop was at the imposing
14th-century Elephant Tower, named for the sculpted elephant by its gate. It
was completed
in 1307, and with its walls of thick limestone blocks, its narrow loopholes and
its heavy gates, the Elephant Tower protected the south-western side of
Cagliari; developed on four levels with a total height of more than thirty meters,
it was also an excellent lookout station against any possible attack from the
sea.
Out next objective was to see the Cathedral of Santa Maria Del
Castello. Again on the way there was a lot of hills and beautiful architecture.
Castello refers to this old district where the cathedral is. The
church was built with gothic-Romanesque forms. It was first mentioned in 1255:
its patron saint was Saint Cecilia (it was later assigned to Santa Maria).
Between the 13th and 14th centuries, it was
expanded, but its current appearance is the result of Catalan-Aragonese
interventions that lasted four centuries. The baroque marble façade dates back
to 1704, inspired on the cathedrals of Lucca and Pisa, was dismantled in the
vain hopes of finding the medieval façade beneath. It was replaced by a
neo-Romanesque marble structure in 1931.
Inside the Cathedral there are several
underground rooms for the burials of different characters. The only accessible
area is the Martyrs' Sanctuary, so called because there are located inside the
179 niches containing the relics of the martyrs of Cagliari.
Leaving there we were heading out of the
Castello district and going to find the ruins of a Roman Amphitheater. On the
way, we found this very nice look out over the city. It was overcast today, so
they pictures are not real bright.
As we left the area there was another
very pretty gate.
The walk there way pretty, but the
amphitheater was nothing compared to other ones that we have seen.
Now it was back down to where we started,
but it was downhill so much easier than going up. On our way down we stumbled
upon the Church of St. Michael. We went in and a woman came up to us and spoke
in broken English and took us on a tour of the church. It was absolutely wonderful
and she was so very nice. Steve said she just wanted to practice her English.
The Society of Jesus was founded in 1540
by Saint Ignatius of Loyola. The Jesuits came to Cagliari in 1562. The church
was built between 1687 and 1697, it was over time furnished and then consecrated
on November 30, 1738. The building with its church hall represents the typical
Jesuit church as regards to architecture and it is probably the finest example of
Baroque art in Cagliari.
Besides the presbytery chapel she took
us into the ante-sacristy. This was a beautiful room in itself, but in here
were three statues that they take out each year for a procession at Easter. The
baptismal font was also housed in here.
Then
she took us into the sacristy. It has beautiful paintings on the wall and
walnut furniture is beautiful.
We
then went by the Crypt of Santa Restituta. Throughout
history the crypt has had different uses: in the late-Punic Period it was
probably a quarry of limestone blocks; subsequently it became a place of
worship; it was later re-used as an amphoras storage until the first century
AD; then it was abandoned for twelve centuries, before being re-used as a place
of worship. There was another period of neglect, caused by the increasing
success of the nearby new churches of St. Anna and St. Francesco. At the
beginning of the sixteenth century it was rediscovered and cleaned again. We
could go in so did not see the altar where is placed the marble statue of Santa
Restituta.
We then stumbled upon one last church, St. Anna. St. Anna is a
Baroque church, located in the heart of the Stampace district, in the same
place where originally, there was a small temple, date back to Pisan period,
which was demolished, in order to give way to the new building. The
restauration lasted approximately 33 years, mainly due to a lack of
capital. The building was severely damaged and partly destroyed during the
bombing in the Second World War, but later it was rebuilt and made
available to the faithful. It did not seem we could wander in this church as we
did in others, so we just took a couple of pictures from the doorway.
We ended up where we started at the Piazza Yenne. We bought a
couple of souvenirs and headed back to our shuttle back to the ship.
We
left port at 2 PM and are now off to Algiers for tomorrow. You cannot get off
the ship in Algiers unless you are on a tour. Ours is the included tour, but
not till 2:45, so will have a restful day.
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