Sassari

Sassari is Sardinia's second city and the capital of the north-west, a lively and proud university town built on a limestone plateau sloping gently down to the Gulf of Asinara. It does not have the sea on its doorstep like Cagliari or Alghero, but it is only a few kilometres away, and the city has something few Sardinian towns can claim: a strong urban identity, born in the Middle Ages as a free commune, with its own language, Sassarese, and a wry, outspoken character its people are happy to own. It is the city of the Candelieri, the Cavalcata, the Brigata Sassari and of politicians who have shaped Italian history.

From village to free commune

The area around Sassari has been inhabited since the Neolithic, and a few kilometres from the city stands one of the most extraordinary prehistoric monuments in the Mediterranean, the altar of Monte d'Accoddi. The city itself, however, grew in the Middle Ages, when the inhabitants of Turris Libisonis, today's Porto Torres, moved inland to escape malaria and raids from the sea. By the 12th century Sassari was already the most important centre of the Giudicato of Torres.

At the end of the 13th century, when the ruling dynasty died out, the city gave itself an autonomous government: it became a free commune, linked first to Pisa and then to Genoa, and in 1316 adopted its own statutes, the Statuti sassaresi, written in Logudorese Sardinian. In the 14th century it passed to the Aragonese, who built a castle, demolished in the 19th century. Between the 16th and 17th centuries the city grew as a centre of trade and learning: its University, one of the oldest on the island, was founded in 1617.

In the 19th century Sassari pulled down its medieval walls and expanded with squares and avenues; in the First World War the city's name became famous throughout Italy through the Brigata Sassari, the Sardinian infantry who fought on the Karst and the Asiago plateau. In the 20th century the city was the birthplace of two Presidents of the Republic, Antonio Segni and Francesco Cossiga, and of the Communist Party leader Enrico Berlinguer.

Piazza d'Italia and the corso

The heart of 19th-century Sassari is Piazza d'Italia, one of the largest and most beautiful squares in Sardinia, surrounded by elegant buildings: the neoclassical Palazzo della Provincia, with its frescoed halls, and the neo-Gothic Palazzo Giordano. In the middle stands the monument to Victor Emmanuel II, unveiled in 1899 in the presence of King Umberto I. From here the arcades of Via Roma begin, along with the avenue leading down to the public gardens and the Emiciclo Garibaldi.

The square is also the start of Corso Vittorio Emanuele, the old Platha de Codinas, the main street of the medieval city. Along it stand Gothic-Catalan palaces, historic shops and the Teatro Civico, small and refined, built in the mid-19th century. Further on are Piazza Tola, with its little market, and the lanes of the old town, partly in need of restoration but full of character.

The cathedral and churches

The city's emblem is the cathedral of San Nicola. Born as a Romanesque church, it was rebuilt in Gothic style and then, in the early 18th century, given a spectacular Baroque façade, crowded with statues, columns and ornament, that looks like an altarpiece in stone. Inside are paintings, Baroque altars and the Cathedral Treasury Museum.

Nearby is the Palazzo Ducale, now the town hall, built at the end of the 18th century for the Duke of Asinara. In the lower town stands the church of Santa Maria di Betlem, founded by the Franciscans, with a 13th-century Romanesque façade and an interior rich in altars: it is the church where the Descent of the Candelieri ends and where the Candelieri are kept during the year.

The Rosello fountain

In the valley below the old walls lies the Rosello fountain, the monument the Sassaresi love most. Built in the early 17th century by Genoese craftsmen, it is a fountain of white and green marble, with statues of the four seasons at the corners and two crossed arches topped by San Gavino. For centuries it was the city's main water source, and the water-carriers, li carrulanti, took the water from house to house on donkeys. Today it is the symbol of Sassari, found on postcards, sweets and souvenirs.

The Museo Sanna

The Giovanni Antonio Sanna National Museum is one of Sardinia's most important archaeological museums. It tells the island's story from prehistory to the Middle Ages, with Ozieri culture pottery, nuragic bronze figurines and votive swords, Phoenician, Punic and Roman finds, and a section devoted to Monte d'Accoddi. It also has a picture gallery and an ethnographic collection of costumes and traditional objects.

Monte d'Accoddi

About ten kilometres from the city, on the road to Porto Torres, lies the prehistoric altar of Monte d'Accoddi, a monument unique in the western Mediterranean. It is a large stepped platform with an access ramp, built at the end of the Neolithic and enlarged in the Copper Age: it recalls the ziggurats of Mesopotamia and was probably a great open-air sanctuary. Beside it stand a menhir, a large offering slab and the remains of a village.

Sassari's sea

Sassari's municipal territory is one of the largest in Italy and reaches the sea in two places. To the north, on the Gulf of Asinara, is the Platamona coast, a long beach of fine sand with pine woods and lagoons, shared with Sorso, where the Sassaresi spend their summers. To the west, on the Nurra coast, is Argentiera, an abandoned mining village overlooking a bay, with the wooden structures of its ore-washing plant and the miners' houses, now part of Sardinia's Geo-mining Park. Further south, Porto Ferro and the coves of the Nurra offer wild, little-visited sea.

Festivals

Sassari has two festivals that are worth the trip on their own. The Cavalcata Sarda, on the second-to-last Sunday of May, brings thousands of people in costume from all over the island, carts and riders into the city. The Descent of the Candelieri, on 14 August, sees the guilds' great wooden columns dance through the streets of the centre to Santa Maria di Betlem: it is the festival the Sassaresi feel most deeply, and UNESCO heritage. Holy Week also has ancient rites here, with the procession of the Mysteries on Holy Tuesday.

Food

Sassari's cooking has a Genoese and popular imprint. The most typical dish is fainè, a thin chickpea flour pancake baked in a wood-fired oven, similar to Ligurian farinata, eaten in the faineria shops of the centre. Then there are favata, snails stewed or in tomato sauce, cordula, tripe, San Gavino soup and lamb and suckling pig dishes. Among the sweets, papassini and tiricche. The hills around the city produce good wines, such as Cagnulari from Usini and Moscato di Sorso-Sennori.

Around Sassari

Sassari is an excellent base for exploring the north-west. Less than half an hour away are Porto Torres, with the basilica of San Gavino and ferries to Asinara, Stintino with La Pelosa beach, Castelsardo with its medieval village above the sea, and Alghero. To the south-east opens the Logudoro of Romanesque churches: the basilica of the Santissima Trinità di Saccargia at Codrongianos, with its black and white striped façade, and then Sant'Antioco di Bisarcio and Sant'Andrea di Sorres. To the south, the Valley of the Nuraghi with the Santu Antine nuraghe at Torralba.

Getting there

Sassari lies on the SS131 Carlo Felice highway, which links it to Cagliari in about two and a half hours. The nearest airport is Alghero-Fertilia, some thirty kilometres away; the port of Porto Torres, twenty kilometres away, receives ferries from Genoa, Civitavecchia, Barcelona and Marseille. The city has urban buses and a light rail line. For the beaches and surroundings a car is best. Sassari is worth visiting in any season, but the days of the Candelieri and the Cavalcata show it at its finest.

What to see

• Duomo di San Nicola
• Fontana di Rosello
• Piazza d'Italia
• Museum: nazionale Sanna
• Altare di Monte d'Accoddi
• Beach of Platamona
• Argentiera

Festivals and traditions

• Cavalcata sarda, penultima domenica di maggioMay
• Discesa dei Candelieri14 August

Festival features

Nearby towns

• Tissi · 5 km
• Ossi · 6 km
• Muros · 7 km
• Usini · 7 km
• Sennori · 7 km
• Sorso · 8 km
• Cargeghe · 8 km
• Osilo · 10 km

Sources: Grande Enciclopedia della Sardegna; ISTAT. Original texts by Gotosardinia.