Cagliari

Cagliari, capital of the autonomous region of Sardinia, is growing as a wide harbour city on the gulf in the southern area of the island. Already inhabited 5 thousand years BC, the city was the seat of Phoenician and Carthaginian colonies in the following centuries until the year 238 BC, date when the Roman 700-year domination began. Subsequently conquered by Vandals and the Byzantine Empire, in the first years of the second millennium Cagliari formed an autonomous government that divided the island into four administrative regions or giudicati. During the Low Medieval Period, it was colonized by the Pisan republic and the kingdom of Aragon; this Spanish domination would last up to the XVIII century. Cagliari’s main architectural and cultural attractions are the Bastion of San Remy, the Gate of the Two Lions, the Cathedral of Santa Maria, the “Purissima” Church, the University Palace, the Elephant Tower, the Saint Pancras’ Tower, the Royal Palace, the San Michele Castle, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Bonaria, the San Domenico Cloister, the Aptilia Pomptilla Roman Sepulchre, the Paleo-Christian crypt and church of San Lucifero, the Punic Necropolis in Tuvixeddu, the Roman Amphitheatre, the Villa Tigellio and the Stampace, Marina and Villanova districts. When in Cagliari, many places are worth visiting- the National Archaeological Museum, the Museum of Mineralogy, the Town Gallery of Art, the Cardu Museum of Siamese Art, the Anthropology and Ethnography Museum, the National Picture Gallery, the Museum of Geology and Palaeontology, the botanical gardens and the Museum of the Treasure of Saint Eulalia.