What to see in Sassari, itinerary including the main monuments and places of interest, including San Nicola Cathedral, public gardens and archaeological museum.
Tourist information
Located in northern Sardinia, between the hills of Nurra, Logudoro and Angiona, Sassari is an important agricultural, commercial and industrial center.
The first human settlements in the area date back to prehistoric times, later the city was conquered by the Romans together with Turris Libyssonis, corresponding to the current Porto Torres.
The historic center experienced a remarkable development during the thirteenth century, until it became the capital of the Giudicato of Torres.
At first the subject of discord between Genoa and Pisa, in 1323 Sassari fell under Aragonese domination, later, after the occupation of the French, in 1527 it was acquired by the Spanish.
The few years of Austrian rule, which took place in the first two decades of the 1700s, followed the Kingdom of the Savoy, between 1720 and 1861, or until the proclamation of the Unification of Italy.
It is advisable to start the tour starting from the Cathedral of San Nicola, located in the square of the same name, whose construction is the result of works carried out in different eras, ranging between the two hundred and eighteenth centuries.
On the main altar of the interior with a single nave is the Madonna del Bosco or del Popolo, a fourteenth-century work by the Sienese school, while in the Chapter Hall there are some works including the Madonna of Humility by Van Loo and the Flight into Egypt by Turchi, inspired by the latter to Caravaggio.
In Piazza del Comune it is possible to admire the exterior of the Town Hall, dating back to the period between the end of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Continuing on foot, you will arrive in Corso Margherita di Savoia and Viale Mancini, roads that delimit the public gardens.
What see
The facade of the University overlooks Corso Margherita, while the building used as the seat of the Sardinian handicraft exhibition is located on Viale Mancini.
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From Corso Angioj you reach the sixteenth-century church of Sant'Agostino in the square of the same name, characterized by internal Gothic structures.
Going back, passing through viale Coppino, you will find the Church of Santa Maria di Bethlem of 1200 where, in the interior with a single nave, there is a Madonna and Child of 1300, made of wood and placed to the left of the main altar, a Catalan-style terracotta Pietà, in the chapel next to the facade, and the fourteenth-century Fonte Brigliadore, decorated with bronze monsters.
Going out and going along Corso Vico, you pass in front of the baroque church of Sant'Antonio Abate, of eighteenth-century origin and located in the homonymous square.
In Via Col di Lana there is the Fonte Rosello, a work by the Genoese author of 1606 in the late Renaissance style.
Via Viale Umberto I you reach Piazza d'Italia where the neoclassical Palazzo della Provincia is located, continuing you arrive at the Sanna ethnographic archaeological museum which boasts a very rich archaeological section, including objects dating back to the Copper and Bronze Age.
In the art gallery it is possible to admire works by Sardinian, Italian and foreign artists, among which the Triptych of Saints Nicola, Lorenzo and Antonio Abate, a Madonna and Child by Vivarini, and a portrait of a sixteenth century woman stand out.
The ethnographic section includes island costumes, looms, rugs, furnishings and audio recordings of typical Sardinian music and choirs.
