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Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
, Corsican and
Tabarchino Tabarchino is a dialect of the Ligurian language spoken in Sardinia. Tabarchino is spoken in the communities of Carloforte on San Pietro Island and Calasetta on Sant'Antioco Island, which are located in the Archipelago of Sulcis in the Provin ...
; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=
Algherese Algherese or Alguerese (Algherese: ) is the variant of Catalan spoken in the city of Alghero ( in Catalan), in the northwest of Sardinia, Italy. The dialect has its roots in 1372, when Catalan-speaking colonists were allowed to repopulate Al ...
and
Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
) is the second-largest island in the
Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
, after
Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...
, and one of the 20 regions of
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of
Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...
and immediately south of the French island of Corsica. It is one of the five Italian regions with some degree of domestic autonomy being granted by a
special statute Special legislation is a legal term of art used in the United States to refer to legislation that targets an individual or a small, identifiable group for treatment that does not apply to all the members of a given class. A statute is often called ...
. Its official name, Autonomous Region of Sardinia, is bilingual in
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
and Sardinian: / . It is divided into four
provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
and a
metropolitan city A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big ci ...
. The capital of the region of Sardinia — and its largest city — is Cagliari. Sardinia's indigenous language and
Algherese Algherese or Alguerese (Algherese: ) is the variant of Catalan spoken in the city of Alghero ( in Catalan), in the northwest of Sardinia, Italy. The dialect has its roots in 1372, when Catalan-speaking colonists were allowed to repopulate Al ...
Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
are referred to by both the regional and national law as two of Italy's twelve officially recognized
linguistic minorities A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally (as of 2019) and ...
, albeit gravely endangered, while the regional law provides some measures to recognize and protect the aforementioned as well as the island's other minority languages (the Corsican-influenced Sassarese and
Gallurese Gallurese () is a Romance language from the Italo-Dalmatian family spoken in the region of Gallura, northeastern Sardinia. It is sometimes considered a dialect of southern Corsican or a transitional language between Corsican and Sardinian. ...
, and finally Tabarchino Ligurian). Owing to the variety of Sardinia's
ecosystems An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...
, which include mountains, woods, plains, stretches of largely uninhabited territory, streams, rocky coasts, and long sandy beaches, Sardinia has been metaphorically described as a micro-continent. In the modern era, many travelers and writers have extolled the beauty of its long-untouched landscapes, which retain vestiges of the
Nuragic civilization The Nuragic civilization, also known as the Nuragic culture, was a civilization or culture on Sardinia (Italy), the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, which lasted from the 18th century BC (Middle Bronze Age) (or from t ...
.


Etymology

The name Sardinia has pre-Latin roots. It comes from the pre-Roman ethnonym *''s(a)rd-'', later
romanised Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
as (feminine ). It makes its first appearance on the Nora Stone, where the word ''ŠRDN'', or *''Šardana'', testifies to the name's existence when the
Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...
n merchants first arrived. According to ''
Timaeus Timaeus (or Timaios) is a Greek name. It may refer to: * ''Timaeus'' (dialogue), a Socratic dialogue by Plato *Timaeus of Locri, 5th-century BC Pythagorean philosopher, appearing in Plato's dialogue *Timaeus (historian) (c. 345 BC-c. 250 BC), Greek ...
'', one of
Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
's dialogues, Sardinia (referred to by most
ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
authors as , ) and its people as well might have been named after a legendary woman called Sardṓ (), born in
Sardis Sardis () or Sardes (; Lydian: 𐤳𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣 ''Sfard''; el, Σάρδεις ''Sardeis''; peo, Sparda; hbo, ספרד ''Sfarad'') was an ancient city at the location of modern ''Sart'' (Sartmahmut before 19 October 2005), near Salihli, ...
(), capital of the ancient Kingdom of Lydia. There has also been speculation that identifies the ancient Nuragic Sards with the
Sherden The Sherden ( Egyptian: ''šrdn'', ''šꜣrdꜣnꜣ'' or ''šꜣrdynꜣ'', Ugaritic: ''šrdnn(m)'' and ''trtn(m)'', possibly Akkadian: ''še-er-ta-an-nu''; also glossed “Shardana” or “Sherdanu”) are one of the several ethnic groups the Sea ...
, one of the
Sea Peoples The Sea Peoples are a hypothesized seafaring confederation that attacked ancient Egypt and other regions in the East Mediterranean prior to and during the Late Bronze Age collapse (1200–900 BCE).. Quote: "First coined in 1881 by the Fren ...
. It is suggested that the name had a religious connotation from its use also as the adjective for the ancient Sardinian mythological hero-god
Sardus Pater Sardus ( grc, Σάρδος), also Sid Addir and Sardus Pater ("Sardinian Father") was the eponymous mythological hero of the Nuragic Sardinians. Sardus appears in the writings of various classical authors, like Sallust, Solinus and Pausanias. Anc ...
("Sardinian Father"; a common explanation that the term means "Father of the Sardinians" is incorrect, as that would be "Sardorum Pater"), as well as being the stem of the adjective "
sardonic To be sardonic is to be disdainfully or cynically humorous, or scornfully mocking. A form of wit or humour, being sardonic often involves expressing an uncomfortable truth in a clever and not necessarily malicious way, often with a degree of sk ...
". In
Classical antiquity Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...
, Sardinia was called a number of names besides ''Sardṓ'' () or ''Sardinia'', like (the Latinised form of the Greek ), () and ().For the historical toponymy of ''Sardinia'', cf. Ong, Brenda Man Qing, and Francesco Perono Cacciafoco. (2022). Unveiling the Enigmatic Origins of Sardinian Toponyms. ''Languages'', 7, 2, 131: 1-19
Paper
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7020131.


Geography

Sardinia is the second-largest island in the
Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
(after
Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...
and before
Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...
), with an area of . It is situated between 38° 51' and 41° 18' latitude north (respectively Isola del Toro and Isola La Presa) and 8° 8' and 9° 50' east longitude (respectively Capo dell'
Argentiera Argentiera is a small town and a frazione (hamlet) in the comune of Sassari, in Sardinia, Italy. It is located 43 km from Sassari, in a narrow valley, on the coast of the Sardinian Sea. History Argentiera is a former mining town, its name ...
and Capo Comino). To the west of Sardinia is the
Sea of Sardinia The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...
, a unit of the Mediterranean Sea; to Sardinia's east is the
Tyrrhenian Sea The Tyrrhenian Sea (; it, Mar Tirreno , french: Mer Tyrrhénienne , sc, Mare Tirrenu, co, Mari Tirrenu, scn, Mari Tirrenu, nap, Mare Tirreno) is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy. It is named for the Tyrrhenian pe ...
, which is also an element of the Mediterranean Sea. The nearest land masses are (clockwise from north) the island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula,
Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...
,
Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...
, the Balearic Islands, and
Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...
. The
Tyrrhenian Sea The Tyrrhenian Sea (; it, Mar Tirreno , french: Mer Tyrrhénienne , sc, Mare Tirrenu, co, Mari Tirrenu, scn, Mari Tirrenu, nap, Mare Tirreno) is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy. It is named for the Tyrrhenian pe ...
portion of the
Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
is directly to the east of Sardinia between the Sardinian east coast and the west coast of the Italian mainland peninsula. The
Strait of Bonifacio The Strait of Bonifacio (french: Bouches de Bonifacio; it, Bocche di Bonifacio; co, Bucchi di Bunifaziu; sdn, Bocchi di Bunifaciu; sc, Buccas de Bonifatziu; lij, Bocche de Bunifazziu; lat, Fretum Gallicum, Fretum Taphros) is the strait betwe ...
is directly north of Sardinia and separates Sardinia from the French island of Corsica. The coasts of Sardinia are long. They are generally high and rocky, with long, relatively straight stretches of coastline, many outstanding headlands, a few wide, deep bays,
ria A ria (; gl, ría) is a coastal inlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciated river valley. It is a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea. Definitions Typically rias have a dendritic, treelike outline although they ca ...
s, many inlets and with various smaller islands off the coast. The island has an ancient geoformation and, unlike Sicily and mainland Italy, is not earthquake-prone. Its rocks date in fact from the
Palaeozoic Era The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...
(up to 500 million years old). Due to long erosion processes, the island's highlands, formed of granite,
schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes ...
,
trachyte Trachyte () is an extrusive igneous rock composed mostly of alkali feldspar. It is usually light-colored and aphanitic (fine-grained), with minor amounts of mafic minerals, and is formed by the rapid cooling of lava enriched with silica and al ...
,
basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...
(called ''jaras'' or ''gollei''),
sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
and
dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...
limestone (called ''tonneri'' or 'heels'), average at between . The highest peak is
Punta La Marmora Punta La Marmora ( sc, Perdas Carpìas) is a mountain in the Gennargentu range, Sardinia (Italy). Geography The mountain belongs to Ogliastra and Nuoro provinces, in the Barbagia mountain area of inner Sardinia. With its summit at an elevati ...
( in Sardinian language) (), part of the Gennargentu Ranges in the centre of the island. Other mountain chains are
Monte Limbara Mount Limbara (Gallurese: ''Monti di Limbara'', sc, Monte de Limbara) is a rocky granitic massif in north-eastern Sardinia, Italy. It is located in the geographical and historical region of Gallura. Its highest peak is Punta Sa Berritta (1, ...
() in the northeast, the Chain of Marghine and Goceano () running crosswise for towards the north, the Monte Albo (), the Sette Fratelli Range in the southeast, and the Sulcis Mountains and the Monte Linas (). The island's ranges and plateaux are separated by wide alluvial valleys and flatlands, the main ones being the
Campidano Campidano ( sc, Campidànu) is a plain located in South-Western Sardinia (Italy), covering approximately 100 kilometres between Cagliari and Oristano. Geography Geologically, it is a graben, a tectonic structure formed in the mid-Pliocene/early ...
in the southwest between
Oristano Oristano (; sc, Aristanis ) is an Italian city and ''comune'', and capital of the Province of Oristano in the central-western part of the island of Sardinia. It is located on the northern part of the Campidano plain. It was established as the pr ...
and Cagliari and the
Nurra The Nurra is a geographical region in the northwest of Sardinia, Italy. It is the second largest plain of the island, located between the towns of Sassari, Porto Torres and Alghero. It covers a surface of 700 km² and is bounded by the ...
in the northwest. Sardinia has few major rivers, the largest being the Tirso, long, which flows into the
Sea of Sardinia The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...
, the
Coghinas The Coghinas is a river of northern Sardinia, Italy. With a length of , it is the third longest river of the island behind the Tirso and the Flumendosa. It has a drainage basin of . The Coghinas's springs are located on the Mountains of Alà, ...
() and the Flumendosa (). There are 54
artificial lakes A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...
and dams that supply water and electricity. The main ones are
Lake Omodeo Lake Omodeo ( it, Lago Omodeo, sc, Lagu Omodeu) is an artificial lake in central west Sardinia, Italy. The lake was constructed in the 1920s. The dam, designed by the engineer Angelo Omodeo, was inaugurated in 1924, at that time it was the l ...
and Lake Coghinas. The only natural freshwater lake is Lago di Baratz. A number of large, shallow, salt-water lagoons and pools are located along the coastline.


Climate

The climate of the island is variable from area to area, due to several factors including the extension in
latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...
and the
elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...
. It can be classified in two different macrobioclimates (Mediterranean pluviseasonal oceanic and Temperate oceanic), one macrobioclimatic variant (Submediterranean), and four classes of continentality (from weak semihyperoceanic to weak semicontinental), eight thermotypic horizons (from lower thermomediterranean to upper supratemperate), and seven ombrotypic horizons (from lower dry to lower hyperhumid), resulting in a combination of 43 different isobioclimates. During the year there is a major concentration of rainfall in the winter and autumn, some heavy showers in the spring and snowfalls in the highlands. The average temperature is between , with mild winters and warm summers on the coasts ( in January, in July), and cold winters and cool summers on the mountains ( in January, in July). Rainfall has a Mediterranean distribution all over the island, with almost totally rainless summers and wet autumns, winters and springs. However, in summer, the rare rainfalls can be characterized by short but severe
thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are some ...
s, which can cause flash floods. The climate is also heavily influenced by the vicinity of the
Gulf of Genoa The Gulf of Genoa (''Golfo di Genova'') is the northernmost part of the Ligurian Sea. This Italian gulf is about wide from the city of Imperia in the west to La Spezia in the east. The largest city on its coast is Genoa, which has an importan ...
(barometric low) and the relative proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. Low pressures in autumn can generate the formation of the so-called ''Medicanes'', extratropical cyclones which affect the Mediterranean basin. In 2013, the island was hit by several cyclones, included the Cyclone Cleopatra, which dumped of rainfall within an hour and a half. Sardinia being relatively large and hilly, weather is not uniform; in particular the East is drier, but paradoxically it suffers the worst rainstorms: in autumn 2009, it rained more than in a single day in Siniscola, and 19 November 2013, locations in Sardinia were reported to have received more than within two hours. The western coast has a higher distribution of rainfalls even for modest elevations (for instance Iglesias, elevation , average annual precipitation ). The driest part of the island is the coast of Cagliari gulf, with less than per year, the minimum is at Capo Carbonara at the extreme south-east of the island , and the wettest is the top of the Gennargentu mountain with almost per year. The average for the entire island is about per year, which is more than enough for the needs of the population and vegetation. The
Mistral Mistral may refer to: * Mistral (wind) in southern France and Sardinia Automobiles * Maserati Mistral, a Maserati grand tourer produced from 1963 until 1970 * Nissan Mistral, or Terrano II, a Nissan 4×4 produced from 1993 until 2006 * Microp ...
from the northwest is the dominant wind on and off throughout the year, though it is most prevalent in winter and spring. It can blow quite strongly, but it is usually dry and cool.


History

Sardinia has been inhabited since the Paleolithic. The island's most notable civilization is the indigenous Nuragic, which flourished from the 18th century BC to either 238 BC or the 2nd century AD in some parts of the island, and to the 6th century AD in that part of the island known as
Barbagia Barbagia (; sc, Barbàgia or ) is a geographical, cultural and natural region of inner Sardinia, contained for the most part in the province of Nuoro and Ogliastra and located alongside the Gennargentu massif. The name comes from Cicero, wh ...
. After a period in which the island was ruled by a political and economic alliance between the Nuragic Sardinians and the
Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...
ns, parts of it were conquered by
Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the cla ...
in the late 6th century BC, and by
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
in 238 BC. The Roman occupation lasted for 700 years. Beginning in the
Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...
, the island was ruled by the
Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The Vandals migrated to the area betw ...
and the Byzantines. In practice, the island was disconnected from Byzantium's territorial influence, which allowed the Sardinians to provide themselves with a self-ruling political organization, the four kingdoms known as
Judicates The Judicates (, or in Sardinian, in Latin, or in Italian), in English also referred to as Sardinian Kingdoms, Sardinian Judgedoms or Judicatures, were independent states that took power in Sardinia in the Middle Ages, between the ninth a ...
. The
Italian maritime republics The maritime republics ( it, repubbliche marinare), also called merchant republics ( it, repubbliche mercantili), were thalassocratic city-states of the Mediterranean Basin during the Middle Ages. Being a significant presence in Italy in the M ...
of Pisa and
Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
struggled to impose political control over these indigenous kingdoms, but it was the Iberian
Crown of Aragon The Crown of Aragon ( , ) an, Corona d'Aragón ; ca, Corona d'Aragó, , , ; es, Corona de Aragón ; la, Corona Aragonum . was a composite monarchy ruled by one king, originated by the dynastic union of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of ...
which, in 1324, succeeded in bringing the island under its control, consolidating it into the
Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...
. This Iberian kingdom endured until 1718, when it was ceded to the
Alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...
House of Savoy; the Savoyards would politically merge their insular possession with their domains on the Italian Mainland which, during the period of Italian unification, they would go on to expand to include the whole Italian peninsula; their territory was so renamed into the
Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to an institutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and f ...
in 1861, and it was reconstituted as the present-day
Italian Republic Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
in 1946.


Prehistory

Sardinia is one of the most geologically ancient bodies of land in Europe. The island was populated in various waves of immigration from prehistory until recent times. The first people to settle in Sardinia during the
Upper Paleolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coin ...
and the Mesolithic came from Continental Europe; Paleolithic inhabitation of the island is demonstrated by the evidences in
Oliena Oliena (, less correctly ; sc, Ulìana ) is a commune in the province of Nuoro, Sardinia, Italy. History The territory of Oliena has been inhabited since the Palaeolithic Era until today. The first proofs about the above-mentioned presences ...
's ''
Corbeddu Cave The Corbeddu cave is located in the territory of Oliena, municipality of the province of Nuoro, in Sardinia. In this cave found refuge the famous Sardinian bandit Giovanni Corbeddu Salis (1844-1898), from which it took its name. The cave is abou ...
''; during the Mesolithic era some populations, particularly from present-day Tyrrhenian coast of Italy, managed to move to northern Sardinia via Corsica. The Neolithic Revolution was introduced in the
6th millennium BC The 6th millennium BC spanned the years 6000 BC to 5001 BC (c. 8 ka to c. 7 ka). It is impossible to precisely date events that happened around the time of this millennium and all dates mentioned here are estimates mostly based on geological an ...
by the Cardial culture coming from the Italian Peninsula. In the mid-Neolithic period, the
Ozieri culture The Ozieri culture (or San Michele culture) was a prehistoric pre-Nuragic culture that occupied Sardinia from c. 3200 to 2800 BCE. The Ozieri was the culmination of the island's Neolithic culture and takes its name from the locality where early ...
, probably of Aegean origin, flourished on the island spreading the
hypogeum A hypogeum or hypogaeum (plural hypogea or hypogaea, pronounced ; literally meaning "underground", from Greek ''hypo'' (under) and ''ghê'' (earth)) is an underground temple or tomb. Hypogea will often contain niches for cremated human rem ...
tombs known as domus de Janas, while the
Arzachena culture The Arzachena culture was a pre-Nuragic culture of the Late Neolithic Age occupying Gallura (the northeastern part of Sardinia) and part of southern Corsica from approximately the 4th to the 3rd millennium BC. It takes its name from the Sardin ...
of
Gallura Gallura ( sdn, Gaddura or ; sc, Caddura ) is a region in North-Eastern Sardinia, Italy. The name ''Gallùra'' is allegedly supposed to mean "stony area". Geography Gallùra has a surface of and it is situated between 40°55'20"64 latitude ...
built the first
megalith A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea. The ...
s: circular tombs. In the early 3rd millennium BC, the metallurgy of
copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
and
silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...
began to develop. During the late
Chalcolithic The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and  ''líthos'', "stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin '' aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regular ...
the so-called
Beaker culture The Bell Beaker culture, also known as the Bell Beaker complex or Bell Beaker phenomenon, is an archaeological culture named after the inverted-bell beaker drinking vessel used at the very beginning of the European Bronze Age. Arising from a ...
, coming from various parts of Continental Europe, appeared in Sardinia. These new people predominantly settled on the west coast, where the majority of the sites attributed to them had been found. The Beaker culture was followed in the early
Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
by the
Bonnanaro culture The Bonnanaro culture is a protohistoric culture that flourished in Sardinia during the 2nd millennium BC (1800–1600 BC), considered to be the first stage of the Nuragic civilization. It takes its name from the comune of Bonnanaro in the provinc ...
which showed both reminiscences of the Beaker and influences by the
Polada culture The Fouladi (alternatively Polada, Poladha, Puladi); ( prs, پولادی) is a tribe of Hazara found in Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlo ...
. As time passed the different Sardinian populations appear to have become united in customs, yet remained politically divided into various small, tribal groupings, at times banding together against invading forces from the sea, and at others waging war against each other. Habitations consisted of round thatched stone huts.


Nuragic civilization

From about 1500 BC onwards, villages were built around a kind of round tower-fortress called ''
nuraghe The nuraghe (, ; plural: Logudorese Sardinian , Campidanese Sardinian , Italian ), or also nurhag in English, is the main type of ancient megalithic edifice found in Sardinia, developed during the Nuragic Age between 1900 and 730 B.C. ...
'' (usually pluralized as ''nuraghes'' in English and as in Italian). These towers were often reinforced and enlarged with battlements. Tribal boundaries were guarded by smaller lookout Nuraghes erected on strategic hills commanding a view of other territories. Today, some 7,000 Nuraghes dot the Sardinian landscape. While initially these Nuraghes had a relatively simple structure, with time they became extremely complex and monumental (see for example the '' Nuraghe Santu Antine'', '' Su Nuraxi'', or ''
Nuraghe Arrubiu The Nuraghe Arrubiu is one of the largest nuraghes in Sardinia. It is located in Orroli, in the province of South Sardinia. Its name means "red Nuraghe" in the Sardinian language, which derives from the basalt stones it had been built with. The st ...
''). The scale, complexity and territorial spread of these buildings attest to the level of wealth accumulated by the Nuragic Sardinians, their advances in technology and the complexity of their society, which was able to coordinate large numbers of people with different roles for the purpose of building the monumental Nuraghes. The Nuraghes are not the only Nuragic buildings that stand in place, as there are several sacred wells around Sardinia and other buildings with religious purposes such as the
Giants' grave Giants' tomb (Italian: '' Tomba dei giganti'', Sardinian: ''Tumba de zigantes'' / ''gigantis'') is the name given by local people and archaeologists to a type of Sardinian megalithic gallery grave built during the Bronze Age by the Nuragic civ ...
(monumental collective tombs) and collections of religious buildings that probably served as destinations for pilgrimage and mass religious rites (e.g. '' Su Romanzesu'' near
Bitti Bitti ( sc, Bitzi) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Nuoro in the Italian region Sardinia, about north of Cagliari and about north of Nuoro. Bitti borders the municipalities of Alà dei Sardi, Buddusò, Lodè, Lula, Nule, Ona ...
). At the time, Sardinia was at the centre of several commercial routes and it was an important provider of raw materials such as
copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
and lead, which were pivotal for the manufacture of the time. By controlling the extraction of these raw materials and by trading them with other countries, the ancient Sardinians were able to accumulate wealth and reach a level of sophistication that is not only reflected in the complexity of its surviving buildings, but also in its artworks (e.g. the votive bronze statuettes found across Sardinia or the statues of Mont'e Prama). According to some scholars, the Nuragic people(s) are identifiable with the
Sherden The Sherden ( Egyptian: ''šrdn'', ''šꜣrdꜣnꜣ'' or ''šꜣrdynꜣ'', Ugaritic: ''šrdnn(m)'' and ''trtn(m)'', possibly Akkadian: ''še-er-ta-an-nu''; also glossed “Shardana” or “Sherdanu”) are one of the several ethnic groups the Sea ...
, a tribe of the
Sea Peoples The Sea Peoples are a hypothesized seafaring confederation that attacked ancient Egypt and other regions in the East Mediterranean prior to and during the Late Bronze Age collapse (1200–900 BCE).. Quote: "First coined in 1881 by the Fren ...
. The Nuragic civilization was linked with other contemporaneous megalithic civilization of the western Mediterranean, such as the
Talaiotic culture The Talaiotic Culture or Talaiotic Period is the name used to describe the society that existed on the Gymnesian Islands (the easternmost Balearic Islands) during the Iron Age. Its origins date from the end of the second millennium BC, when the i ...
of the Balearic Islands and the
Torrean civilization The Torrean civilization was a Bronze Age megalithic civilization that developed in Southern Corsica, mostly concentrated south of Ajaccio, during the second half of the second millennium BC. History The characteristic buildings of this cul ...
of Southern Corsica. Evidence of trade with the other civilizations of the time is attested by several artefacts (e.g. pots), coming from as far as
Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...
,
Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...
,
Mainland Greece Greece is a country of the Balkans, in Southeastern Europe, bordered to the north by Albania, North Macedonia and Bulgaria; to the east by Turkey, and is surrounded to the east by the Aegean Sea, to the south by the Cretan and the Libyan Seas, ...
, Spain and Italy, that have been found in Nuragic sites, bearing witness to the scope of commercial relations between the Nuragic people and other peoples in Europe and beyond.


Ancient history

Around the 9th century BC the
Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...
ns began visiting Sardinia with increasing frequency, presumably initially needing safe overnight and all-weather anchorages along their trade routes from the coast of modern-day Lebanon as far afield as the African and European Atlantic coasts and beyond. The most common ports of call were
Caralis Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...
,
Nora Nora, NORA, or Norah may refer to: * Nora (name), a feminine given name People with the surname * Arlind Nora (born 1980), Albanian footballer * Pierre Nora (born 1931), French historian Places Australia * Norah Head, New South Wales, headlan ...
, Bithia,
Sulci Sulci or Sulki (in Greek , Steph. B., Ptol.; , Strabo; , Paus.), was one of the most considerable cities of ancient Sardinia, situated in the southwest corner of the island, on a small island, now called Isola di Sant'Antioco, which is, how ...
, and
Tharros Tharros (also spelled Tharras, Archaic Greek: , Hellenistic Greek, Tarras or Tarrae, Τάρραι) was an ancient city and former bishopric on the west coast of Sardinia, Italy. It is currently a Latin Catholic titular see and an archaeologica ...
. Claudian, a 4th-century Latin poet, in his poem ''De bello Gildonico'', stated that Caralis was founded by people from Tyre, probably in the same time of the foundation of
Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the cla ...
, in the 9th or 8th century BC. In the 6th century BC, after the conquest of western Sicily, the
Carthaginians The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of the ...
planned to annex Sardinia. A first invasion attempt led by
Malchus Malchus (; grc-x-koine, Μάλχος, translit=Málkhos, ) was the servant of the Jewish High Priest Caiaphas who participated in the arrest of Jesus as written in the four gospels. According to the Bible, one of the disciples, Simon Peter, b ...
was foiled by the victorious Nuraghic resistance. However, from 510 BC, the southern and west-central part of the island were invaded a second time and came under Carthaginian rule. In 238 BC, taking advantage of Carthage having to face a rebellion of her mercenaries (the
Mercenary War The Mercenary War, also known as the Truceless War, was a mutiny by troops that were employed by Carthage at the end of the First Punic War (264241 BC), supported by uprisings of African settlements revolting against Carthaginian contro ...
) after the First Punic War (264–241 BC), the
Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
annexed Corsica and Sardinia from the Carthaginians. The two islands became the province of
Corsica and Sardinia The Province of Sardinia and Corsica ( la, Provincia Sardinia et Corsica) was an ancient Roman province including the islands of Sardinia and Corsica. Pre-Roman times The Nuragic civilization flourished in Sardinia from 1800 to 500 BC. The ...
. They were not given a provincial governor until 227 BC. The Romans faced many rebellions, and it took them many years to pacify both islands. The existing coastal cities were enlarged and embellished, and Roman
colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...
such as Turris Lybissonis and
Feronia Feronia may mean: * Feronia (mythology), a goddess of fertility in Roman and Etruscan mythology * ''Feronia'' (plant), a genus of plants * Feronia Inc., a plantations company operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo * Feronia (Sardinia) ...
were founded. These were populated by Roman immigrants. The Roman military occupation brought the Nuragic civilization to an end, except for the mountainous interior of the island, which the Romans called '' Barbaria'', meaning ' Barbarian land'. Roman rule in Sardinia lasted 694 years, during which time the province was an important source of grain for the capital.
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
came to be the dominant spoken language during this period, though Roman culture was slower to take hold, and Roman rule was often contested by the Sardinian tribes from the mountainous regions.


Vandal conquest

The
east Germanic tribe The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and ear ...
of the
Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The Vandals migrated to the area betw ...
conquered Sardinia in 456. Their rule lasted for 78 years up to 534, when 400 eastern Roman troops led by Cyril, one of the officers of the ''foederati'', retook the island. It is known that the Vandal government continued the forms of the existing Roman Imperial structure. The governor of Sardinia continued to be called the ''
praeses ''Praeses'' (Latin  ''praesides'') is a Latin word meaning "placed before" or "at the head". In antiquity, notably under the Roman Dominate, it was used to refer to Roman governors; it continues to see some use for various modern positions. ...
'' and apparently continued to manage military, judicial, and civil governmental functions via imperial procedures. The only Vandal governor of Sardinia about whom there is substantial record is the last,
Godas Godas (died 533) was a Gothic nobleman of the Vandal kingdom in North Africa. King Gelimer of the Vandals made him governor of the Vandalic province of Sardinia, but Godas stopped forwarding the taxes he collected and declared himself ruler of ...
, a
Visigoth The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is kn ...
noble. In AD 530, a
coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...
in
Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the cla ...
removed King
Hilderic Hilderic (460s – 533) was the penultimate king of the Vandals and Alans in North Africa in Late Antiquity (523–530). Although dead by the time the Vandal Kingdom was overthrown in 534, he nevertheless played a key role in that event. Biog ...
, a convert to
Nicene Christianity The original Nicene Creed (; grc-gre, Σύμβολον τῆς Νικαίας; la, Symbolum Nicaenum) was first adopted at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. In 381, it was amended at the First Council of Constantinople. The amended form is ...
, in favor of his cousin
Gelimer Gelimer (original form possibly Geilamir, 480–553), King of the Vandals and Alans (530–534), was the last Germanic ruler of the North African Kingdom of the Vandals. He became ruler on 15 June 530 after deposing his first cousin twice rem ...
, an Arian Christian like most of the élite in his kingdom. Godas was sent to take charge and ensure the loyalty of Sardinia. He did the exact opposite, declaring the island's independence from Carthage and opening negotiations with Emperor
Justinian I Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renova ...
, who had declared war on Hilderic's behalf. In AD 533 Gelimer sent the bulk of his army and navy (120 vessels and 5,000 men) to Sardinia to subdue Godas, with the catastrophic result that the Vandal Kingdom was overwhelmed when Justinian's own army under
Belisarius Belisarius (; el, Βελισάριος; The exact date of his birth is unknown. – 565) was a military commander of the Byzantine Empire under the emperor Justinian I. He was instrumental in the reconquest of much of the Mediterranean terr ...
arrived at Carthage in their absence. The Vandal Kingdom ended and Sardinia was returned to Roman rule.


Byzantine era and the rise of the Judicates

In 533, Sardinia returned to the rule of the
Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
when the
Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The Vandals migrated to the area betw ...
were defeated by the armies of
Justinian I Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renova ...
under the General
Belisarius Belisarius (; el, Βελισάριος; The exact date of his birth is unknown. – 565) was a military commander of the Byzantine Empire under the emperor Justinian I. He was instrumental in the reconquest of much of the Mediterranean terr ...
in the
Battle of Tricamarum The Battle of Tricamarum took place on December 15, 533 between the armies of the Byzantine Empire, under Belisarius, and the Vandal Kingdom, commanded by King Gelimer, and his brother Tzazon. It followed the Byzantine victory at the Battle of ...
, in their African kingdom; Belisarius sent his general Cyril to Sardinia to retake the island. Sardinia remained in Byzantine hands for the next 300 years aside from a short period in which it was invaded by the
Ostrogoths The Ostrogoths ( la, Ostrogothi, Austrogothi) were a Roman-era Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Gothic kingdoms within the Roman Empire, based upon the large Gothic populations who ...
in 551. Under Byzantine rule, the island was divided into districts called ''mereíai'' (μερείαι) in Byzantine Greek, which were governed by a judge residing in Caralis and garrisoned by an army stationed in ''Forum Traiani'' (today
Fordongianus Fordongianus, ( sc, Fordongianis) (Ancient Greek: ''Hydata Hypsitana'', la, Aquae Hypsitanae or ''Forum Trajani'',dux ''Dux'' (; plural: ''ducēs'') is Latin for "leader" (from the noun ''dux, ducis'', "leader, general") and later for duke and its variant forms (doge, duce, etc.). During the Roman Republic and for the first centuries of the Roman Empire, '' ...
''. During this time,
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
took deeper root on the island, supplanting the Paganism which had survived into the early
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
in the culturally conservative hinterlands. Along with lay Christianity, the followers of monastic figures such as Basil of Caesarea became established in Sardinia. While Christianity penetrated the majority of the population, the region of
Barbagia Barbagia (; sc, Barbàgia or ) is a geographical, cultural and natural region of inner Sardinia, contained for the most part in the province of Nuoro and Ogliastra and located alongside the Gennargentu massif. The name comes from Cicero, wh ...
remained largely pagan and, probably, partially non-Latin speaking. They re-established a short-lived independent domain with Sardinian-heathen lay and religious traditions, one of its kings being
Hospito Hospito (''Hospiton'' in Latin, ''Ospitone'' in Sardinian) was a Sardinian chief of Barbagia (''dux Barbaricinorum'') who converted to Christianity in the late sixth century. Gregory the Great, in a letter dated to 594, commended Hospito for his C ...
.
Pope Gregory I Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregor ...
wrote a letter to Hospito defining him "Dux Barbaricinorum" and, being Christian, the leader and best of his people. In this unique letter about Hospito, the Pope prompts him to convert his people who "living all like irrational animals, ignore the true God and worship wood and stone" (). The dates and circumstances of the end of Byzantine rule in Sardinia are not known. Direct central control was maintained at least through c. 650, after which local legates were empowered in the face of the rebellion of
Gregory the Patrician Gregory the Patrician ( el, Γρηγόριος, Grēgórios; la, Flavius Gregorius, died 647) was a Byzantine Exarch of Africa (modern Tunisia, eastern Algeria and western Libya). A relative of the ruling Heraclian dynasty, Gregory was fiercely ...
,
Exarch of Africa The Exarchate of Africa was a division of the Byzantine Empire around Carthage that encompassed its possessions on the Western Mediterranean. Ruled by an exarch (viceroy), it was established by the Emperor Maurice in the late 580s and survive ...
and the first invasion of the
Muslim conquest of the Maghreb The Muslim conquest of the Maghreb ( ar, الْفَتْحُ الإسلَامِيُّ لِلْمَغرِب) continued the century of rapid Muslim conquests following the death of Muhammad in 632 and into the Byzantine-controlled territories of ...
. There is some evidence that senior Byzantine administration in the Exarchate of Africa retreated to Caralis following the final fall of
Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the cla ...
to the
Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
in 697.P. Grierson & L.Travaini, Medieval European Coinage, Cambridge University Press, 1998, p. 287. The loss of imperial control in Africa led to escalating raids by
Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
on the island, the first of which is documented in 703, forcing increased military self-reliance in the province. Elsewhere in the central Mediterranean, the
Aghlabids The Aghlabids ( ar, الأغالبة) were an Arab dynasty of emirs from the Najdi tribe of Banu Tamim, who ruled Ifriqiya and parts of Southern Italy, Sicily, and possibly Sardinia, nominally on behalf of the Abbasid Caliph, for about a c ...
conquered the island of
Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
in 870. They also attacked or raided Sardinia and Corsica. Some modern references state that Sardinia came under Aghlabid control around 810 or after the beginning of the conquest of Sicily in 827. Historian Corrado Zedda argues that the island hosted a Muslim presence during the Aghlabid period, possibly a limited foothold along the coasts that forcibly coexisted with the local Byzantine government. Historian Alex Metcalfe argues that the available evidence for any Muslim occupation or colonisation of the island during this period is limited and inconclusive, and that Muslim attacks were limited to raids. Communication with the central government became daunting if not impossible during and after the
Muslim conquest of Sicily The Muslim conquest of Sicily began in June 827 and lasted until 902, when the last major Byzantine stronghold on the island, Taormina, fell. Isolated fortresses remained in Byzantine hands until 965, but the island was henceforth under Musli ...
between 827 and 902. A letter by Pope Nicholas I as early as 864 mentions the "Sardinian judges", without reference to the empire and a letter by
Pope John VIII Pope John VIII ( la, Ioannes VIII; died 16 December 882) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 14 December 872 to his death. He is often considered one of the ablest popes of the 9th century. John devoted much of his papacy ...
(reigned 872–882) refers to them as ''principes'' ("princes"). By the time of '' De Administrando Imperio'', completed in 952, the Byzantine authorities no longer listed Sardinia as an imperial province, suggesting they considered it lost. In all likelihood a local noble family, the
Lacon-Gunale The Lacon-Gunale were an indigenous family of medieval Sardinia originally established in all the four thrones of the Judgedoms, the four Sardinian medieval kingdoms. Origin Probably the Lacon and Gunale descended respectively from the last ''dux' ...
, acceded to the power of Archon, still identifying themselves as vassals of the Byzantines, but ''
de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
'' independent as communications with Constantinople were very difficult. Only two names of those rulers are known: Salusios () and the protospatharios Turcoturios () from two inscriptions), who probably reigned between the 10th and the 11th century. These rulers were still closely linked to the Byzantines, both for a pact of ancient vassalage, and from the ideological point of view, with the use of the Byzantine Greek language (in a
Romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...
country), and the use of art of Byzantine inspiration. In the early 11th century, an attempt to conquer the island was made by the
Moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or ...
based in the
Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...
. The only records of that war are from Pisan and Genoese chronicles. The Christians won but, after that, the previous Sardinian kingdom was undermined and subsequently divided into four smaller states: Cagliari (''Calari''), Arborea (''Arbaree''), Gallura, and Torres or Logudoro. Whether this final transformation from imperial civil servant to independent sovereign bodies resulted from imperial abandonment or local assertion, by the 10th century, the so-called "Judges" ( sc, judikes / la, iudices, a Byzantine administrative title) had emerged as the autonomous rulers of Sardinia. The title of changed with the language and local understanding of the position, becoming the Sardinian ', essentially a king or sovereign, while ''
Judicate The Judicates (, or in Sardinian, in Latin, or in Italian), in English also referred to as Sardinian Kingdoms, Sardinian Judgedoms or Judicatures, were independent states that took power in Sardinia in the Middle Ages, between the ninth an ...
'' ( sc, logu) came to mean 'state'. Early medieval Sardinian political institutions evolved from the millennium-old Roman imperial structures with relatively little Germanic influence. Although the
Judicates The Judicates (, or in Sardinian, in Latin, or in Italian), in English also referred to as Sardinian Kingdoms, Sardinian Judgedoms or Judicatures, were independent states that took power in Sardinia in the Middle Ages, between the ninth a ...
were hereditary lordships, the old Byzantine imperial notion that personal title or honor was separate from the state still remained, so the Judicate was not regarded as the personal property of the monarch as was common in later European
feudalism Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...
. Like the imperial systems, the new order also preserved "semi-democratic" forms, with national assemblies called the
Crown of the Realm The Crown of the Realm (Sardinian language, Sardinian: ''Corona de Logu'') was a political institution in Sardinia that acted as legislature during Sardinia's Sardinian medieval kingdoms, Judicates era. It was made up of the ''majorales'' (or "wi ...
. Each Judicate saw to its own defense, maintained its own laws and administration, and looked after its own foreign and trading affairs. The history of the four Judicates would be defined by the contest for influence between the two Italian maritime powers of
Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
and Pisa, and later the ambitions of the Kingdom of Aragon. The
Judicate of Cagliari The Judicate of Cagliari ( sc, Judicadu de Càralis / Càlaris, it, Giudicato di Cagliari) was one of the four Sardinian ''judicates'' of the Middle Ages, kingdoms of Byzantine origins. The Judicate of Cagliari covered the entire south and centra ...
or ''Pluminos'', during the regency of Torchitorio V of Cagliari and his successor, William III, was allied with the
Republic of Genoa The Republic of Genoa ( lij, Repúbrica de Zêna ; it, Repubblica di Genova; la, Res Publica Ianuensis) was a medieval and early modern maritime republic from the 11th century to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast. During the La ...
. Because of this it was brought to an end in 1258, when its capital,
Santa Igia Santa Igia or Santa Ilia, modern Santa Gilla lagoon (''Santa Ilia'' being a contraction of ''Santa Cecilia''Corrado Zedda; p. 121.), was a city in Sardinia, in what is now Italy, which existed from the 9th century AD to 1258, when it was destroyed ...
, was stormed and destroyed by an alliance of Sardinian and Pisan forces. The territory then was divided between the
Republic of Pisa The Republic of Pisa ( it, Repubblica di Pisa) was an independent state centered on the Tuscan city of Pisa, which existed from the 11th to the 15th century. It rose to become an economic powerhouse, a commercial center whose merchants dominated ...
, the
Della Gherardesca family The House della Gherardesca was an old noble family of the Republic of Pisa, dating back as early as the 11th century of Longobard origin. They were an important one of the most prominent initially in Pisa, then of Volterra and eventually and of ...
from Italy, and the Sardinian Judicates of Arborea and Gallura. Pisa maintained the control over the fortress of Castel di Cagliari founded by Pisan merchants in 1216–1217 east of Santa Igia; in the south-west the count
Ugolino della Gherardesca Ugolino della Gherardesca (March 1289), Count of Donoratico, was an Italian nobleman, politician and naval commander. He was frequently accused of treason and features prominently in Dante's ''Divine Comedy''. Biography In the 13th century, the ...
promoted the birth of the town of ''Villa di Chiesa'' (today Iglesias) to exploit the nearby rich
silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...
deposits. The
Judicate of Logudoro The Judicate of Logudoro or Torres ( sc, Judicadu de Logudoro or ''Torres'', ''Rennu de Logudoro'' or ''Logu de Torres'') was a state in northwest Sardinia from the tenth through the thirteenth century. Its original capital was Porto Torres. The r ...
(also called ''Torres'') was also allied to the
Republic of Genoa The Republic of Genoa ( lij, Repúbrica de Zêna ; it, Repubblica di Genova; la, Res Publica Ianuensis) was a medieval and early modern maritime republic from the 11th century to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast. During the La ...
and came to an end in 1259 after the death of the ' (queen) Adelasia. The territory was divided up between the
Doria Doria or Dória may refer to: People Surname * Doria (family), a prominent Genoese family ** Andrea Doria (1466–1560), Genoese admiral ** Ansaldo Doria, 12th century Genoese statesman and commander ** Brancaleone Doria (died c. 1409?), husband ...
and Malaspina families of
Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
and the Bas-Serra family of
Arborea Arborea is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Oristano, Sardinia, Italy, whose economy is largely based on agriculture and cattle breeding with production of vegetables, rice, fruit and milk (notably the local milk product Arborea). Histo ...
, while the city of Sassari became a small republic, along the lines of the Italian city-states (''comuni''), confederated firstly with Pisa and then with Genoa. The
Judicate of Gallura The Judicate of Gallura ( lat, Iudicatus Gallurae, sc, Judicadu de Gallura, it, Giudicato di Gallura) was one of four Sardinian judicates in the Middle Ages. These were independent states whose rulers bore the title ''iudex'', judge. Gallura, a ...
ended in the year 1288, when the last giudice,
Nino Visconti Ugolino Visconti (died 1296), better known as Nino, was the Giudice of Gallura from 1275 or 1276 to his death. He was a son of Giovanni Visconti and grandson of Ugolino della Gherardesca. He was the first husband of Beatrice d'Este, daughter of ...
(a friend of
Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
), was driven out by the Pisans, who occupied the territory. The
Judicate of Arborea The Judicate of Arborea ( sc, Judicadu de Arbaree, it, Giudicato di Arborea, ) or the Kingdom of Arborea (, , ) was one of the four independent judicates into which the island of Sardinia was divided in the Middle Ages. It occupied the central ...
, having
Oristano Oristano (; sc, Aristanis ) is an Italian city and ''comune'', and capital of the Province of Oristano in the central-western part of the island of Sardinia. It is located on the northern part of the Campidano plain. It was established as the pr ...
as its capital, had the longest life compared to the other kingdoms. Its later history is entwined with the attempt to unify the island into a single Sardinian state ( 'Sardinian Republic' in Sardinian, or 'Sardinian Nation' in Catalan) against their relatives and former Aragonese allies.


Aragonese period

In 1297, Pope Boniface VIII established on his own initiative (''
motu proprio In law, ''motu proprio'' (Latin for "on his own impulse") describes an official act taken without a formal request from another party. Some jurisdictions use the term ''sua sponte'' for the same concept. In Catholic canon law, it refers to a ...
'') a hypothetical ''regnum Sardiniae et Corsicae'' ("
Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...
") in order to settle the
War of the Sicilian Vespers The War of the Sicilian Vespers or just War of the Vespers was a conflict that started with the insurrection of the Sicilian Vespers against Charles of Anjou in 1282 and ended in 1302 with the Peace of Caltabellotta. It was fought in Sicily, C ...
diplomatically. This had broken out in 1282 between the
Capetian House of Anjou The Capetian House of Anjou or House of Anjou-Sicily, was a royal house and cadet branch of the direct French House of Capet, part of the Capetian dynasty. It is one of three separate royal houses referred to as ''Angevin'', meaning "from Anjou" ...
and Aragon over the possession of Sicily. Despite the existence of the indigenous states, the Pope offered this newly created crown to
James II of Aragon James II (Catalan: ''Jaume II''; Spanish: ''Jaime II;'' 10 April 1267 – 2 or 5 November 1327), called the Just,, an, Chaime lo Chusto, es, Jaime el Justo. was the King of Aragon and Valencia and Count of Barcelona from 1291 to 1327. He ...
, promising him support should he wish to conquer Pisan Sardinia in exchange for Sicily. In 1324, in alliance with the Kingdom of Arborea and following a military campaign that lasted a year or so, the Aragon Crown Prince
Alfonso Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...
led an Aragonese army that occupied the Pisan territories of Cagliari and Gallura along with the allied city of Sassari, naming them "The Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica". The kingdom was to remain a dominion of the Crown of Aragon (under the 16th-century kings of Spain) until the
Peace of Utrecht The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vacant throne o ...
. During this period, the Judicate of Arborea promulgated the legal code of the kingdom in the '' Carta de Logu'' ('Charter of the Land'). The Carta de Logu was originally compiled by Marianus IV of Arborea, and was amended and updated by Mariano's daughter, Female Judge (' or ')
Eleanor of Arborea Eleanor of Arborea or Eleanor De Serra Bas ( Sardinian: Elianora de Arbarée / Elianora De Serra Bas, Italian: Eleonora d'Arborea / Eleonora De Serra Bas; 1347— June 1404) was one of the most powerful and important, and one of the last, judges ...
. The legal code was written in Sardinian and established a whole range of citizens' rights. Among the revolutionary concepts in this Carta de Logu was the right of women to refuse marriage and to own property. In terms of civil liberties, the code made provincial 14th century Sardinia one of the most developed societies in all of Europe. In 1353, Peter IV of Aragon, following Aragonese customs, granted a parliament to the kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica, which was followed by some degree of self-government under a viceroy and judicial independence. This parliament, however, had limited powers. It consisted of high-ranking military commanders, the clergy and the nobility. The kingdom of Aragon also introduced the feudal system into the areas of Sardinia that it ruled. The Sardinian Judicates never adopted feudalism, and Arborea maintained its parliament, called the ''
Corona de Logu The Crown of the Realm ( Sardinian: ''Corona de Logu'') was a political institution in Sardinia that acted as legislature during Sardinia's Judicates era. It was made up of the ''majorales'' (or "wise men") of each region, including the '' curado ...
'' 'Crown of the Realm'. In this parliament, apart from the nobles and military commanders, also sat the representatives of each township and village. The Corona de Logu exercised some control over the king: under the rule of the ''bannus consensus'' the king could be deposed or even executed if he did not follow the rules of the kingdom. Having broken the alliance with the Crown of Aragon, from 1353 to 1409, the Arborean giudici Marianus IV, Hugh III and
Brancaleone Doria Brancaleone Doria was the husband of Eleanor of Arborea. He was a scion of an influential family (the Doria) of the Republic of Genoa, the son of the elder Brancaleone and a woman named Giacomina. On 16 March 1357, he became a vassal of Peter IV ...
(husband of
Eleanor of Arborea Eleanor of Arborea or Eleanor De Serra Bas ( Sardinian: Elianora de Arbarée / Elianora De Serra Bas, Italian: Eleonora d'Arborea / Eleonora De Serra Bas; 1347— June 1404) was one of the most powerful and important, and one of the last, judges ...
), succeeded in occupying all of Sardinia except the heavily fortified towns of the Castle of Cagliari and
Alghero Alghero (; ca, label= Alguerese, L'Alguer ; sc, S'Alighèra ; sdc, L'Aliera ) is a city of about 45,000 inhabitants in the Italian insular province of Sassari in northwestern Sardinia, next to the Mediterranean Sea. The city's name comes from ...
, which for years remained as the only Aragonese dominions in Sardinia (
Sardinian–Aragonese war The Sardinian–Aragonese war was a late medieval conflict lasting from 1353 to 1420. The fight was over supremacy of the land and took place between the Judicate of Arborea -- allied with the Sardinian branch of the Doria family and Genoa -- and ...
). In 1409,
Martin I of Sicily Martin I of Sicily (c. 1374/1376 – 25 July 1409), called "The Younger", was King of Sicily from his marriage to Queen Maria in 1390 until his death. Martin's father was the future King Martin I of Aragon, and his grandparents were King Pet ...
, king of Sicily and heir to the crown of Aragon, defeated the Sardinians at the
Battle of Sanluri The Battle of Sanluri was fought on 30 June 1409 between the armies of the Sardinian Judicate of Arborea and the Aragonese-Sicilian army led by the King Martin I of Sicily. The location was the fortified village of Sanluri, in Sardinia. The ...
. The battle was fought by about 20,000 Sardinian, Genoese and French knights, enrolled from their kingdom at a time when the population of Sardinia had been greatly depleted by the plague. Despite the Sardinian army outnumbering the Aragonese army, they were defeated. The Judicate of Arborea disappeared in 1420, when its rights were sold by the last king for 100,000
gold florins The Florentine florin was a gold coin struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time. It had 54 grains (3.499 grams, 0.113 troy ounce) of nominally pure or 'fine' gold with a purcha ...
, and after some of its most notable men switched sides in exchange for privileges. For example, Leonardo Cubello, with some claim to the crown being from a family related to the Kings of Arborea, was granted the title of Marquis of Oristano and feudal rights on a territory that partly overlapped with the original extension of the Kingdom of Arborea in exchange for his subjection to the Aragonese monarchs. The conquest of Sardinia by the Kingdom of Aragon meant the introduction of the feudal system throughout Sardinia. Thus Sardinia is probably the only European country where feudalism was introduced in the transition period from the Middle Ages to the early modern period, at a time when feudalism had already been abandoned by many other European countries.


Spanish period

In 1469, the heir to Sardinia, Ferdinand II of Aragon, married Isabel of Castile, and the "
Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...
" (which was separated from Corsica) was to be inherited by their Habsburg grandson,
Charles I of Spain Charles V, french: Charles Quint, it, Carlo V, nl, Karel V, ca, Carles V, la, Carolus V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain ( Castile and Aragon) fro ...
, with the state symbol of the Four Moors. The successors of
Charles I of Spain Charles V, french: Charles Quint, it, Carlo V, nl, Karel V, ca, Carles V, la, Carolus V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain ( Castile and Aragon) fro ...
, in order to defend their Mediterranean territories from raids of the Barbary pirates, fortified the Sardinian shores with a system of coastal lookout towers, allowing the gradual resettlement of some coastal areas. The Kingdom of Sardinia remained Aragonese-Spanish for about 400 years, from 1323 to 1708, assimilating a number of Spanish traditions, customs and linguistic expressions, nowadays vividly portrayed in the folklore parades of Saint Efisio in Cagliari (1 May), the Cavalcade on Sassari (last but one Sunday in May), and the Redeemer in Nuoro (28 August). To this day Catalan is still spoken in the north-western city of
Alghero Alghero (; ca, label= Alguerese, L'Alguer ; sc, S'Alighèra ; sdc, L'Aliera ) is a city of about 45,000 inhabitants in the Italian insular province of Sassari in northwestern Sardinia, next to the Mediterranean Sea. The city's name comes from ...
( l'Alguer). Many
famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompani ...
s have been reported in Sardinia. According to Stephen L. Dyson and Robert J. Rowland, "The
Jesuits , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...
of Cagliari recorded years during the late 16th century "of such hunger and so sterile that the majority of the people could sustain life only with wild ferns and other weeds" ... During the terrible famine of 1680, some 80,000 people, out of a total population of 250,000, are said to have died, and entire villages were devastated ... "


Savoyard period

In 1708, as a consequence of the
Spanish War of Succession Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
, the rule of the Kingdom of Sardinia passed from
King Philip V of Spain Philip V ( es, Felipe; 19 December 1683 – 9 July 1746) was King of Spain from 1 November 1700 to 14 January 1724, and again from 6 September 1724 to his death in 1746. His total reign of 45 years is the longest in the history of the Spanish mona ...
into the hands of the
Austrians , pop = 8–8.5 million , regions = 7,427,759 , region1 = , pop1 = 684,184 , ref1 = , region2 = , pop2 = 345,620 , ref2 = , region3 = , pop3 = 197,990 , ref3 ...
, who occupied the island. The
Treaty of Utrecht The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vacant throne ...
granted Sardinia to the
Austrians , pop = 8–8.5 million , regions = 7,427,759 , region1 = , pop1 = 684,184 , ref1 = , region2 = , pop2 = 345,620 , ref2 = , region3 = , pop3 = 197,990 , ref3 ...
, but in 1717, Cardinal
Giulio Alberoni Giulio Alberoni (30 May 1664 OS – 26 June NS 1752) was an Italian cardinal and statesman in the service of Philip V of Spain. Early years He was born near Piacenza, probably at the village of Fiorenzuola d'Arda in the Duchy of Parma. His fat ...
, minister of
Philip V of Spain Philip V ( es, Felipe; 19 December 1683 – 9 July 1746) was King of Spain from 1 November 1700 to 14 January 1724, and again from 6 September 1724 to his death in 1746. His total reign of 45 years is the longest in the history of the Spanish mon ...
, reoccupied Sardinia. In 1718, with the Treaty of London, Sardinia was eventually handed over to the House of Savoy; this Alpine dynasty would go on to introduce the
Italian language Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about ...
on the island forty years later in 1760, thereby starting a process of Italianization amongst the islanders. In 1793, Sardinians repelled the French '' Expédition de Sardaigne'' during the
French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars (french: Guerres de la Révolution française) were a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from 1792 until 1802 and resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted France against Britain, Austria, Prussia ...
. On 23 February 1793, Domenico Millelire, commanding the Sardinian fleet, defeated the fleets of the French Republic near the
Maddalena archipelago The Maddalena Archipelago is a group of islands in the Strait of Bonifacio between Corsica (France) and Sardinia (Italy). The whole archipelago makes the territory of the ''La Maddalena'' comune in Sardinia. Geography The archipelago consists ...
, of which then-lieutenant
Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...
was a leader. Millelire became the first recipient of the
Gold Medal of Military Valor The Gold Medal of Military Valour ( it, Medaglia d'oro al valor militare) is an Italian medal established on 21 May 1793 by King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia for deeds of outstanding gallantry in war by junior officers and soldiers. The fac ...
of the Italian Armed Forces. In the same month, Sardinians stopped the attempted French landing on the beach of
Quartu Sant'Elena Quartu Sant'Elena (; sc, Cuartu Sant'Aleni; ), located four miles East from Cagliari on the ancient Roman road, is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. It is the third biggest city of Sardinia with a populat ...
, near the Capital of Cagliari. Because of these successes, the representatives of the nobility and clergy (''Stamenti'') formulated five requests addressed to the King
Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia Victor Amadeus III (Vittorio Amadeo Maria; 26 June 1726 – 16 October 1796) was King of Sardinia from 1773 to his death. Although he was politically conservative, he carried out numerous administrative reforms until he declared war on Revolu ...
, but they were all met with rejection. Because of this discontent, on 28 April 1794, during an uprising in Cagliari, two Savoyard officials were killed; that was the spark that ignited a revolt (called the "Sardinian Vespers") throughout the island, which started on 28 April 1794 (commemorated today as ''
sa die de sa Sardigna Sardinia's Day ( sc, sa die de sa Sardigna ; sdc, la dì di la Sardigna; sdn, la dì di la Saldigna; ca, label= Algherese, lo dia de la Sardenya; it, il giorno della Sardegna), also known as Sardinian people's Day ( it, Giornata del popolo sa ...
'') with the expulsion and execution of the Piedmontese officers for a few days from the Capital Cagliari. On 28 December 1795 Sassari insurgents demonstrating against feudalism, mainly from the region of
Logudoro The Logudoro (meaning "Golden Place") is a large traditional region Sardinia, Italy. The name of Logudoro today is linked to the Logudorese dialect, which covers a large area of northern-central Sardinia. The first denomination of the area is ...
, occupied the city. On 13 February 1796, in order to prevent the spread of the revolt, the viceroy Filippo Vivalda gave the Sardinian magistrate
Giovanni Maria Angioy Giovanni Maria Angioy (; sc, Juanne Maria Angioy, italics=no ; 21 October 1751, Bono – 22 February 1808, Paris) was a Sardinian politician and patriot and is considered to be a national hero by Sardinian nationalists. Although best known fo ...
the role of Alternos, which meant a substitute of the viceroy himself. Angioy moved from Cagliari to Sassari, and during his journey almost all the villages joined the uprising, demanding an end to feudalism and aiming to declare the island to be an independent republic, but once he was outnumbered by loyalist forces he fled to Paris and sought support for a French annexation of the island. In 1798, the islet near Sardinia was attacked by the
Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...
ns and over 900 inhabitants were taken away as slaves. The final Muslim attack on the island was on
Sant'Antioco Sant'Antioco (; sc, Santu Antiogu) is the name of both an island and a municipality (''comune'') in southwestern Sardinia, in the Province of South Sardinia, in Sulcis zone. With a population of 11,730, the municipality of Sant'Antioco it is the ...
on 16 October 1815, over a millennium since the first. In 1799, as a consequence of the
Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
in Italy, the Savoy royal family left
Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...
and took refuge in Cagliari for some fifteen years. In 1847, the Sardinian parliaments (''Stamenti''), in order to get the Piedmontese liberal reforms they could not afford due to their separated legal system, renounced their state autonomy and agreed to form a union with the Italian Mainland States (''Stati di Terraferma''), ending up with a single parliament, a single magistracy and a single government in Turin; this move aggravated the island's peripheral condition and most of the pro-union supporters, including its leader Giovanni Siotto Pintor, would later regret it. In 1820, the Savoyards imposed the Enclosures Act (''Editto delle Chiudende'') on the island, aimed at turning the land's traditional collective ownership, a cultural and economic cornerstone of Sardinia since the Nuragic times, to private property. This gave rise to many abuses, as the reform ended up favouring the landholders while excluding the poor Sardinian farmers and shepherds, who witnessed the abolition of the communal rights and the sale of their lands. Many local rebellions like the Nuorese ('The Already Known' in Sardinian) riot in 1868, all repressed by the King's army, resulted in an attempt to return to the past and reaffirm the right to use the once common land. However the common lands (called ''ademprivios'') were never completely abolished, and they are still present in large number to this day (500,000 hectares of common lands were counted in 1956, of which 345,000 constituted by woods).


Kingdom of Italy

With the
Perfect fusion The Perfect Fusion ( it, Fusione perfetta) was the 1847 act of the Savoyard king Charles Albert of Sardinia which abolished the administrative differences between the mainland states ( Savoy and Piedmont) and the island of Sardinia, in a fashion ...
in 1848, the confederation of states powered by the Savoyard kings of Sardinia became a unitary and constitutional state and moved to the
Italian Wars of Independence The War of Italian Independence, or Italian Wars of Independence, include: * First Italian War of Independence (1848–1849) *Second Italian War of Independence (1859) *Third Italian War of Independence (1866) * Fourth Italian War of Independence ( ...
for the
Unification of Italy The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...
, that were led for thirteen years. In 1861, being Italy united by a debated war campaign, the parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia decided by law to change its name and the title of its king to
Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to an institutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and f ...
and
King of Italy King of Italy ( it, links=no, Re d'Italia; la, links=no, Rex Italiae) was the title given to the ruler of the Kingdom of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The first to take the title was Odoacer, a barbarian military leader ...
. Most Sardinian forests were cut down at this time, in order to provide the Piedmontese with raw materials, like wood, used to make railway sleepers on the mainland. The extension of the primary natural forests, praised by every traveller visiting Sardinia, would in fact be reduced to 1/5 of their original number, being little more than 100.000 hectares at the end of the century. From 1850 onward, taxes more than doubled in Sardinia, which compounded the already severe financial hardships facing the islanders, due to the Italo-French tariff war: between 1885 and 1897, the Sardinians saw their land being confiscated more than the rest of Italy combined as a result of tax evasion. During the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the Sardinian soldiers of the Brigata Sassari distinguished themselves. It was the first and only regional military unit in Italy, since the people enrolled were only Sardinians. The brigade suffered heavy losses and earned four Gold Medals of Military Valor. Sardinia lost more young people than any other Italian region on the front, with 138 casualties per 1000 soldiers compared to the Italian average of 100 casualties. During the Fascist period, with the implementation of the policy of
autarky Autarky is the characteristic of self-sufficiency, usually applied to societies, communities, states, and their economic systems. Autarky as an ideal or method has been embraced by a wide range of political ideologies and movements, especiall ...
, several swamps around the island were reclaimed and agrarian communities founded. The main communities were the village of Mussolinia (now called
Arborea Arborea is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Oristano, Sardinia, Italy, whose economy is largely based on agriculture and cattle breeding with production of vegetables, rice, fruit and milk (notably the local milk product Arborea). Histo ...
), populated by farmers from
Veneto it, Veneto (man) it, Veneta (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = ...
and
Friuli Friuli ( fur, Friûl, sl, Furlanija, german: Friaul) is an area of Northeast Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity containing 1,000,000 Friulians. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli Venezia Giuli ...
, in the area of Oristano and Fertilia, populated at first by settlers from the Ferrara area, followed, after
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, by a notable number of
Istrian Italians Istrian Italians are an ethnic group from the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic region of Istria in modern northwestern Croatia and southwestern Slovenia. Istrian Italians descend from the original Latinized population of Roman Empire, Roman Istria#Early h ...
and
Dalmatian Italians Dalmatian Italians are the historical Italian national minority living in the region of Dalmatia, now part of Croatia and Montenegro. Since the middle of the 19th century, the community, counting according to some sources nearly 20% of all Da ...
hailing from territories lost to
Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
, in the area adjacent the city of
Alghero Alghero (; ca, label= Alguerese, L'Alguer ; sc, S'Alighèra ; sdc, L'Aliera ) is a city of about 45,000 inhabitants in the Italian insular province of Sassari in northwestern Sardinia, next to the Mediterranean Sea. The city's name comes from ...
, within the region of
Nurra The Nurra is a geographical region in the northwest of Sardinia, Italy. It is the second largest plain of the island, located between the towns of Sassari, Porto Torres and Alghero. It covers a surface of 700 km² and is bounded by the ...
. Also established during that time (1938) was the city of Carbonia, which became the main centre of coal mining activity, that attracted thousand of workers from the rest of the Island and the Italian mainland. The Sardinian writer
Grazia Deledda Grazia Maria Cosima Damiana Deledda (; 27 September 1871 – 15 August 1936), also known in Sardinian language as Gràssia or Gràtzia Deledda (), was an Italian writer who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926 "for her idealistically ...
won the
Nobel Prize for Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...
in 1926. During the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, Sardinia was an important air and naval base and was heavily bombed by the
Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
, especially the city of Cagliari. German troops left the island on 8 September 1943, a few days after the Armistice of Cassibile, and retired to Corsica without fighting and bloodshed, after a bilateral agreement between the general Antonio Basso (Commander of the Armed Forces of Sardinia) and the German Karl Hans Lungerhausen, general of the 90th Panzergrenadier Division.


Post-Second World War period

In 1946, by popular referendum, Italy became a republic, with Sardinia being administered since 1948 by a special statute of autonomy. By 1951,
malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
was successfully eliminated by the ERLAAS, Anti-malaric Regional Authority, and the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, which facilitated the commencement of the Sardinian tourist boom. With the increase in
tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...
, coal decreased in importance but Sardinia followed the
Italian economic miracle The Italian economic miracle or Italian economic boom ( it, il miracolo economico italiano) is the term used by historians, economists, and the mass media to designate the prolonged period of strong economic growth in Italy after the Second Worl ...
. In the early 1960s, an industrialisation effort was commenced, the so-called ''Piani di Rinascita'' (rebirth plans), with the initiation of major infrastructure projects on the island. These included the construction of new dams and roads, reforestation, agricultural zones on reclaimed marshland, and large industrial complexes (primarily oil refineries and related petrochemical operations). With the creation of
petrochemical Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable so ...
industries, thousands of ex-farmers became industrial workers. The 1973 oil crisis caused the termination of employment for thousands of workers employed in the petrochemical industries, which aggravated the emigration already present in the 1950s and 1960s. Sardinia faced the creation of
military base A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. A military base always provides accommodations for ...
s on the island, like Decimomannu Air Base and
Salto di Quirra Salto di Quirra is a restricted weapons testing range and rocket launching site near Perdasdefogu on Sardinia. It is the largest military range in Italy, composed of 12000 hectares of land owned by the Italian Ministry of Defence and one of the ...
(the biggest scientific military base in Europe) in the same decades. Even now, around 60% of all Italian and NATO military installations in Italy are on Sardinia, whose area is less than one-tenth of all the Italian territory and whose population is little more than the 2.5%; furthermore, they comprise over 35,000 hectares used for experimental weapons testing, where 80% of the military explosives in Italy are used.
Sardinian nationalism Sardinian nationalism or also Sardism (''Sardismu'' in Sardinian; ''Sardismo'' in Italian) is a social, cultural and political movement in Sardinia calling for the self-determination of the Sardinian people in a context of national devolutio ...
and local
protest movement A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one. Protests can be thought of as acts of cooper ...
s became stronger in the 1970s, and a number of bandits (''
anonima sarda Anonima sarda (, ; also anonima sequestri) is an Italian journalistic expression widely used by the Italian media as an umbrella to describe the Sardinian groups operating kidnappings for ransom, which took place for the most part in the Medite ...
'') started a long series of
kidnappings In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/ asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the ...
, which ended only in the 1990s. This also gave rise to various militant groups that blended separatist and communist ideas, the most famous being ''Barbagia Rossa'' and the
Sardinian Armed Movement The Sardinian Armed Movement was a short-lived terrorist movement advocating socialism and political independence for the island of Sardinia. It mainly operated in Sardinia, but also in the Italian mainland, from 1983 to 1985. The group has been ...
, which perpetrated several bombings and terrorist actions between the 1970s and the 1980s. In the span of just two years (1987–1988), 224 bombing attacks were reported. In 1983 a prominent activist of a separatist party, the Sardinian Action Party (''Partidu Sardu – Partito Sardo d'Azione''), was elected president of the regional parliament, and in the 1980s several other movements calling for independence from Italy were born; in the 1990s some of them became political parties, even if in a rather disjointed manner. It was not until 1999 that the island's languages ( Sardinian, Sassarese,
Gallurese Gallurese () is a Romance language from the Italo-Dalmatian family spoken in the region of Gallura, northeastern Sardinia. It is sometimes considered a dialect of southern Corsican or a transitional language between Corsican and Sardinian. ...
,
Algherese Algherese or Alguerese (Algherese: ) is the variant of Catalan spoken in the city of Alghero ( in Catalan), in the northwest of Sardinia, Italy. The dialect has its roots in 1372, when Catalan-speaking colonists were allowed to repopulate Al ...
and
Tabarchino Tabarchino is a dialect of the Ligurian language spoken in Sardinia. Tabarchino is spoken in the communities of Carloforte on San Pietro Island and Calasetta on Sant'Antioco Island, which are located in the Archipelago of Sulcis in the Provin ...
) were recognised, even if just formally, together with
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
. The
35th G8 summit The 35th G8 summit was held in L'Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy, on 8–10 July 2009. It was originally to be held at Sardinian seaside city of La Maddalena, but it was moved to L'Aquila as part of an attempt to redistribute disaster funds after the ...
was planned by
Prodi II Cabinet The second Prodi government was the cabinet of the government of Italy from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008, a total of 722 days, or 1 year, 11 months and 21 days. The 59th cabinet of the Italian Republic, it was the only cabinet of the XV Legislature ...
to be held in Sardinia, on the island of
La Maddalena La Maddalena (Gallurese: ''Madalena'' or ''La Madalena'', sc, Sa Madalena) is a town and ''comune'' located on the islands of the Maddalena archipelago in the province of Sassari, northern Sardinia, Italy. The main town of the same name is loca ...
, in July 2009; however, in April 2009, the Italian Prime Minister,
Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies f ...
, decided, without convoking the Italian parliament or consulting the Sardinian governor of his own party, to move the summit, even though the works were almost completed, to L'Aquila, provoking heavy protests. Today Sardinia is phasing in as an EU region, with a diversified economy focused on tourism and the tertiary sector. The economic efforts of the last twenty years have reduced the handicap of insularity, especially in the fields of low-cost air travel and advanced
information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of Data (computing), data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information te ...
. For example, the
CRS4 CRS4, also known as Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia (Italian: Centro di Ricerca, Sviluppo e Studi Superiori in Sardegna), is an interdisciplinary research center, founded by the Sardinia Autonomous Region on N ...
(Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia) developed the second European
website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wi ...
and 1st in Italy in 1991 and webmail in 1995. CRS4 allowed several telecommunication companies and internet service providers based on the island to flourish, such as Videonline in 1994,
Tiscali Tiscali S.p.a. () is an Italian telecommunications company, based in Cagliari, Sardinia, that provides internet and telecommunications services to its domestic market. It previously had operations in other European nations through its acquisitio ...
in 1998 and Andala Umts in 1999.


Education

According to the
ISTAT The Italian National Institute of Statistics ( it, Istituto nazionale di statistica; Istat) is the main producer of official statistics in Italy. Its activities include the census of population, economic censuses and a number of social, economic ...
census of 2001, the literacy rate in Sardinia among people below 65 years old is 99.5 percent. Total literacy rate (including people over 65) is 98.2 percent.Analfabetismo Italia – Censimento 2001
/ref> The illiteracy rate among males below 65 years old is 0.24 percent and among women 0.25 percent; the number of women that annually graduate at secondary high schools and universities is about 10–20 percent higher than men. Sardinia has the 2nd highest rate of school drop-out in Italy. Sardinia has two public universities: the
University of Sassari The University of Sassari ( it, Università degli Studi di Sassari, UniSS) is a university located in Sassari, Italy. It was founded in 1562 and is organized in 13 departments. The University of Sassari earned first place in the rankings for ...
and the University of Cagliari, founded in the 16th and 17th century. 48,979 students were enrolled at universities in 2007–2008.


Economy

Sardinia's economy is in the best position among Italian regions located south of Rome. The greatest economic development had taken place inland, in the provinces of Cagliari and Sassari, characterized by a certain amount of enterprise. According to Eurostat, the 2014 nominal Gross domestic product, GDP was €33,356 million, €33,085 million in purchasing power parity, resulting in a Gross domestic product, GDP per capita of €19,900, which is 72% of the EU average. The per capita income in Sardinia is the highest of the southern half of Italy. The most populated provincial chief towns have higher incomes: in Cagliari the income per capita is €27,545, in Sassari €24,006, in
Oristano Oristano (; sc, Aristanis ) is an Italian city and ''comune'', and capital of the Province of Oristano in the central-western part of the island of Sardinia. It is located on the northern part of the Campidano plain. It was established as the pr ...
€23,887, in Nuoro is €23,316 and in Olbia is €20,827. Sardinia is List of Italian regions by GDP, the 14th most productive region in the country and is List of Italian regions by GRP per capita, the 16th for GRP per capita among Italians region. The Sardinian economy is, however, constrained due to the high costs of the transportation of goods and electricity, which is twice that of the continental Italian regions, and triple that of the EU average. Sardinia is the only Italian region that produces a surplus of electricity, and exports electricity to Corsica and the Italy, Italian mainland: in 2009, the new submarine power cable Sapei entered into operation. It links the Fiume Santo Power Station, in Sardinia, to the converter stations in Latina, Lazio, Latina, in the Italian peninsula. The SACOI is another submarine power cable that links Sardinia to Italy, crossing Corsica, from 1965. Small scale LNG terminals and a 404-km gas pipeline are under construction, and will be operative in 2018. They will decrease the current high cost of the electric power in the island. , Sardinia has 2 GigaWatts of thermal power plants, 1 GW each of wind and solar power, and over 450 MW of hydropower. Three main banks are headquartered in Sardinia. However, Banco di Sardegna and Banca di Sassari, both originally from Sassari. There are chances for Sardinia to become a tax haven, the whole island territory being free by custom duties, Value added tax, vat and excise taxes on fuel; since February 2013, the town of Portoscuso has become the first free trade zone. According to the article 12 of the Sardinian Statute modified by the regional parliament in October 2013: "The Territory of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia is located off the customs line and constitutes a Free Trade Zone enclosed by the surrounding sea; the access points consist of the seaports and the airports. The Sardinian Free Trade Zone is regulated by the laws of the European Union and Italy that are in force also in Livigno, Campione D'Italia, Gorizia, Savogna d'Isonzo and the Region of Aosta Valley".


Unemployment

The unemployment rate for the fourth quarter of 2008 was 8.6%; by 2012, the unemployment rate had increased to 14.6%. Its rise was due to the Financial crisis of 2007–2010, global financial crisis that hit Sardinian exports, mainly focused on refined oil, chemical products, and also mining and metallurgical products. The unemployment rate dropped to 11.2% at the end of 2018, which is only 1.8 percentage points (pp) higher than the national average (9.4%) and 5.3pp lower than Southern Italy, Southern Italian regions (16.5%), according to Italian National Institute of Statistics.


Economic sectors

This table shows the sectors of the Sardinian economy in 2011:


Primary

Sardinia is home to nearly four million sheep, almost half of the entire Italian assets and that makes the island one of the areas of the world with the highest density of sheep along with some parts of the United Kingdom and New Zealand (135 sheep every square kilometer versus 129 in UK and 116 in New Zealand). Sardinia has been for thousands of years specializing in sheep breeding, and, to a lesser extent, goats and cattle that is less productive of agriculture in relation to land use. It is probably in breeding and cattle ownership the economic base of the early proto-historic and monumental Sardinian civilization from Neolithic to the Iron Age. Agriculture has also played a very important role in the economic history of the island, especially in the great plain of
Campidano Campidano ( sc, Campidànu) is a plain located in South-Western Sardinia (Italy), covering approximately 100 kilometres between Cagliari and Oristano. Geography Geologically, it is a graben, a tectonic structure formed in the mid-Pliocene/early ...
, particularly suitable for wheat farming. The Sardinian soils, even those plains are slightly permeable, with aquifers of lacking and sometimes brackish water and very small natural reserves. Water scarcity was the first problem that was faced for the modernization of the sector, with the construction of a great barrier system of dams, which today contains nearly 2 billion cubic meters of water. The Sardinian agriculture is now linked to specific products such as cheese, wine, olive oil, artichoke, tomato for a growing product export. The reclamations have helped to extend the crops and to introduce other ones such as vegetables and fruit, next to the historical ones, olive and grapes that are present in the hilly areas. The Campidano plain, the largest lowland Sardinian produces oats, barley and durum, of which is one of the most important Italian producers. Among the vegetables, as well as artichokes, has a certain weight the production of orange (fruit), oranges, and, before the reform of the sugar sector from the European Union, the cultivation of sugar beet. In the forests there is the cork oak, which grows naturally; Sardinia produces about 80% of Italian cork. The cork (material), cork district, in the northern part of the
Gallura Gallura ( sdn, Gaddura or ; sc, Caddura ) is a region in North-Eastern Sardinia, Italy. The name ''Gallùra'' is allegedly supposed to mean "stony area". Geography Gallùra has a surface of and it is situated between 40°55'20"64 latitude ...
region, around Calangianus and Tempio Pausania, is composed of 130 companies. Every year in Sardinia 200,000 quintals (20,000 tonnes) of cork are carved, and 40% of the end products are exported. In fresh food, as well as artichokes, the production of tomatoes (including Camoni tomato) and citrus fruit are of a certain weight. Sardinia is the 5th Italian region for rice production, the main paddy fields are located in the
Arborea Arborea is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Oristano, Sardinia, Italy, whose economy is largely based on agriculture and cattle breeding with production of vegetables, rice, fruit and milk (notably the local milk product Arborea). Histo ...
Plain. In addition to meat, Sardinia produces a wide variety of cheese, considering that half of the sheep milk produced in Italy is produced in Sardinia, and is largely worked by the cooperatives of the shepherds and small industries. Sardinia also produces most of the pecorino romano, a non-original product of the island, much of which is traditionally addressed to the Italian overseas communities. Sardinia boasts a centuries-old tradition of horse breeding since the Aragonese domination, whose cavalry drew from equine heritage of the island to strengthen their own army or to make a gift to the other sovereigns of Europe. Today the island boasts the highest number of horse herds in Italy. There is little fishing (and no real maritime tradition), Portoscuso tunas are exported worldwide, but primarily to Japan.


Industry and handicraft

The once prosperous mining industry is still active though restricted to coal (Nuraxi Figus, hamlet of Gonnesa), antimony (Villasalto), gold (Furtei), bauxite (Olmedo, Sardinia, Olmedo) and lead and zinc (Iglesiente,
Nurra The Nurra is a geographical region in the northwest of Sardinia, Italy. It is the second largest plain of the island, located between the towns of Sassari, Porto Torres and Alghero. It covers a surface of 700 km² and is bounded by the ...
). The granite extraction represents one of the most flourishing industries in the northern part of the island. The Gallura granite district is composed of 260 companies that work in 60 quarries, where 75% of the Italian granite is extracted. The principal industries are chemicals (Porto Torres, Cagliari, Villacidro, Ottana), petrochemicals (Porto Torres, Sarroch), metalworking (Portoscuso, Portovesme, Villacidro), cement ( Cagliari), pharmaceutical ( Sassari), shipbuilding (Arbatax, Olbia, Porto Torres), oil rig construction (Arbatax), rail industry (Villacidro), arms industries at Domusnovas and food (sugar refineries at Villasor and Oristano, dairy at
Arborea Arborea is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Oristano, Sardinia, Italy, whose economy is largely based on agriculture and cattle breeding with production of vegetables, rice, fruit and milk (notably the local milk product Arborea). Histo ...
, Macomer and Thiesi, fish factory at Olbia). In Sardinia is located the DASS (''Distretto Aerospaziale della Sardegna''), a consortium of companies, research centers and universities focused on aerospace industry and research. The aerospace manufacturer Vitrociset, in Villaputzu, is involved in the production of the stealth multirole fighter Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. Plans related to industrial conversion are in progress in the main industrial sites, like in Porto Torres, where seven research centres are developing the transformation from traditional fossil fuel related industry to an integrated production chain from vegetable oil using oleaginous seeds to bio-plastic
matrica green chemicals
Sardinia is involved in the industrial production of the AIRPod, an innovative car powered by compressed air, with the first factory being built in Bolotana. Craft industries include rugs, jewelry, textile, lacework, basket making and coral.


Tertiary

The Sardinian economy is today focused on the overdeveloped tertiary sector (67.8% of employment), with commerce, tertiary sector of the economy, services,
information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of Data (computing), data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information te ...
, public administration and especially on
tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...
(mainly seaside tourism), which represents the main industry of the island with 2,721 active companies and 189,239 rooms. In 2008 there were 2,363,496 arrivals (up 1.4% on 2007). In the same year, the airports of the island registered 11,896,674 passengers (up 1.24% on 2007). Due to its isolated and insular location, Sardinia focused part of its economy on the development of digital technologies since the dawn of internet era: the first Italian website, one of the first webmail system and one of the first and largest internet providers (Video On Line) were realised by the
CRS4 CRS4, also known as Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia (Italian: Centro di Ricerca, Sviluppo e Studi Superiori in Sardegna), is an interdisciplinary research center, founded by the Sardinia Autonomous Region on N ...
, the first European online newspaper was developed by L'Unione Sarda and also the first Italian UMTS company was founded on the island. Today Sardinia is the second Italian region, after Lombardy, for investments in Startup company, startups (owning the 20% of the Italian venture capital).


Communications

On the island are headquartered some telecommunication companies and internet service providers, such as
Tiscali Tiscali S.p.a. () is an Italian telecommunications company, based in Cagliari, Sardinia, that provides internet and telecommunications services to its domestic market. It previously had operations in other European nations through its acquisitio ...
and the Mediterranean Skylogic Teleport, a ground station controlled by satellite provider Eutelsat. Sardinia is the Italian region with the highest e-intensity index after the Aosta Valley (index measuring the relative maturity of Internet economies on the basis of three factors: enablement, engagement, and expenditure) and the region with the highest internet performances, such as fastest broadband connection in Italy. Sardinia is also the Italian region with the highest percentage (41%) of 4G LTE (telecommunication), LTE users. The Chinese multinational telecommunications equipment and systems companies ZTE and Huawei have development centers and innovation labs in Sardinia. Sardinia has become Europe's first region to fully adopt the new Digital Terrestrial Television broadcasting standard. From 1 November 2008 TV channels are broadcast only in digital.


Transport


Airports

Sardinia has three international airports (Alghero-Fertilia Airport, Alghero-Fertilia/Riviera del Corallo Airport, Olbia - Costa Smeralda Airport, Olbia-Costa Smeralda Airport and Cagliari-Elmas Airport) connected with the principal Italian cities and many European destinations, mainly in the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Germany, and two regional airports (Oristano-Fenosu Airport and Tortolì Airport, Tortolì-Arbatax Airport). Internal air connections between Sardinian airports are limited to a daily Cagliari-Olbia flight. Sardinian citizens benefit from special sales on plane tickets, and several Low-cost carrier, low-cost air companies operate on the island. Air Italy (2018–2020), Air Italy (formerly known as Meridiana) was an airline headquartered in the airport of Olbia; it was founded as Alisarda in 1963 by the Aga Khan IV. The development of Alisarda followed the development of Costa Smeralda in the northeast part of the island, a well known vacation spot among billionaires and film actors worldwide.


Seaports

The ferry companies operating on the island are Tirrenia di Navigazione, Moby Lines, Corsica Ferries - Sardinia Ferries,Grandi Navi Veloci, Grimaldi Lines, Corsica Linea; they link the Sardinian seaports of Porto Torres, Olbia, Golfo Aranci, Arbatax, Santa Teresa Gallura and Cagliari with Civitavecchia,
Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
, Livorno, Naples, Palermo, Trapani, Piombino in Italy, Marseille, Toulon, Bonifacio, Corse-du-Sud, Bonifacio, Propriano and Ajaccio in France and Barcelona in Spain. Caronte & Tourist and Delcomar links the main island to the islands of
La Maddalena La Maddalena (Gallurese: ''Madalena'' or ''La Madalena'', sc, Sa Madalena) is a town and ''comune'' located on the islands of the Maddalena archipelago in the province of Sassari, northern Sardinia, Italy. The main town of the same name is loca ...
and Carloforte, San Pietro. About 40 tourist harbours are located along the Sardinian coasts.


Roads

Sardinia is the only Italian region without Autostrade (en:motorways), but the road network is well developed with a system of no-toll roads with dual carriageway, called ''superstrade'' ('super roads') that connect the principal towns and the main airports and seaports; the speed limit is /. The principal road is the Strada statale 131 Charles Felix, SS131 "Carlo Felice", linking the south with the north of the island, crossing the most historic regions of Porto Torres and Cagliari; it is part of European route E25. The Strada statale 131 Diramazione Centrale Nuorese, SS 131 d.c.n links
Oristano Oristano (; sc, Aristanis ) is an Italian city and ''comune'', and capital of the Province of Oristano in the central-western part of the island of Sardinia. It is located on the northern part of the Campidano plain. It was established as the pr ...
with Olbia, crossing the hinterland Nuoro region. Other roads designed for high-capacity traffic link Sassari with
Alghero Alghero (; ca, label= Alguerese, L'Alguer ; sc, S'Alighèra ; sdc, L'Aliera ) is a city of about 45,000 inhabitants in the Italian insular province of Sassari in northwestern Sardinia, next to the Mediterranean Sea. The city's name comes from ...
, Sassari with Tempio Pausania, Sassari – Olbia, Cagliari – Tortolì, CagliariIglesias, Nuoro – Lanusei. A work in progress is converting the main routes to highway standards, with the elimination of all Intersection (road), intersections. The secondary inland and mountain roads are generally narrow with many hairpin turns, so the speed limits are very low. Public transport buses reach every town and village at least once a day; however, due to the low density of population, the smallest territories are reachable only by car. The Azienda Regionale Sarda Trasporti (ARST (company), ARST) is the public regional bus transport agency. Networks of city buses serve the main towns ( Cagliari, Iglesias,
Oristano Oristano (; sc, Aristanis ) is an Italian city and ''comune'', and capital of the Province of Oristano in the central-western part of the island of Sardinia. It is located on the northern part of the Campidano plain. It was established as the pr ...
,
Alghero Alghero (; ca, label= Alguerese, L'Alguer ; sc, S'Alighèra ; sdc, L'Aliera ) is a city of about 45,000 inhabitants in the Italian insular province of Sassari in northwestern Sardinia, next to the Mediterranean Sea. The city's name comes from ...
, Sassari, Nuoro, Carbonia, Sardinia, Carbonia and Olbia). In Sardinia 1,295,462 vehicles circulate, equal to 613 per 1,000 inhabitants.


Railways

The Sardinian railway system was developed starting from the 19th century by the Welsh engineer Benjamin Piercy. Today there are two different railway operators: * Trenitalia which connects the most populated towns and the main ports. This network is the most modern on the island, running primarily diesel locomotives such as the Alstom, ''Alstom Minuetto'' and, from 2015 the faster tilting train Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, CAF ATR365 and ATR 465, specifically designed for the Sardinian railway network; * ARST (company), ARST: the trains run on narrow gauge railways, narrow-gauge track, are generally slow, due to the tortuosity of the lines, except for the electrified tram-trains operating in the metropolitan areas of Sassari Tram-train, Sassari and Cagliari Metro-tramway, Cagliari. The ''Trenino Verde'' (''Little Green Train'') is a tourist railway, railway tourism service operated by ARST. Vintage railcars and steam locomotives run through the wildest parts of the island. They allow the traveller to have scenic views impossible to see from the main roads.


Demographics

With a Population density of 69/km2, slightly more than a third of the national average, Sardinia is the fourth least populated region in Italy. In the recent past the population distribution was anomalous compared to that of other Italian regions lying on the sea. In fact, contrary to the general trend, most urban settlement, with the exception of the fortified cities of Cagliari,
Alghero Alghero (; ca, label= Alguerese, L'Alguer ; sc, S'Alighèra ; sdc, L'Aliera ) is a city of about 45,000 inhabitants in the Italian insular province of Sassari in northwestern Sardinia, next to the Mediterranean Sea. The city's name comes from ...
, Castelsardo and few others, has not taken place primarily along the coast but in the subcoastal areas and towards the centre of the island. Historical reasons for this include the repeated Saracen raids during the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
and then Barbary raids until the early 19th century (making the coast unsafe), widespread pastoral activities inland, and the swampy nature of the coastal plains (reclaimed definitively only in the 20th century). The situation has been reversed with the expansion of seaside tourism; today all Sardinia's major urban centres are located near the coasts, while the island's interior is very sparsely populated. It is the region with the lowest total fertility rate (1.087 births per woman) and the second-lowest birth rate of Italy (which is already one of the lowest in the world). Combined with the aging of population going rather fast (in 2009, people older than 65 were 18.7%), rural Population decline, depopulation is quite a big issue: between 1991 and 2001, 71.4% of Sardinian villages have lost population (32 more than 20% and 115 between 10% and 20%), with over 30 of them being at risk to become ghost towns. It is predicted that, at this rate, Sardinia is going to be the European island with the lowest population density immediately after Iceland in 2080. Nonetheless, the overall population estimate has remained relatively stable because of a considerable immigration flow, mainly from the Italian mainland, but also from Eastern Europe (esp. Romania), Africa and Asia.


Life expectancy

Average life expectancy is slightly over 82 years (85 for women and 79.7 for men). Sardinia shares with the Japanese island of Okinawa the highest rate of centenarians in the world (22 centenarians/100,000 inhabitants). Sardinia is the first discovered Blue Zone, a demographic and/or geographic area in the world with an oversize concentration of centenarians and supercentenarians.


Foreign immigration

In 2016 there were 50,346 foreign national residents, forming 3% of the total Sardinian population. The most represented nationalities were: * 13,995 * 4,470 * 4,319 * 3,259 * 2,391 * 1,865 * 1,599 * 1,361 * 1,198 * 1,136 * 1,113 * 694 * 669 * 642 * 621


Main cities and Functional Urban Areas

Sardinia's most populated cities are Cagliari and Sassari. The Metropolitan City of Cagliari has 431,302 inhabitants, or about ¼ of the population of the entire island. Eurostat has identified in Sardinia two Functional Urban Areas: Cagliari, with 477,000 inhabitants, and Sassari, with 222,000 inhabitants.


Government and politics

Sardinia is one of the five Italian autonomous regions, along with the Aosta Valley, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Friuli Venezia Giulia and
Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...
. Its particular statute, which in itself is a Italian Constitution, constitutional law, gives the region a limited degree of autonomy, entailing the right to carry out the administrative functions of the local body and to create its own laws in a strictly defined number of domains. The regional administration is constituted by three authorities: * the Regional Council of Sardinia, Regional Council (legislative power) * the Regional Junta (executive power) * the President (chief of executive power)


Administrative divisions

Since 2016, Sardinia is divided into four provinces (Province of Nuoro, Nuoro, Province of Oristano, Oristano, Province of Sassari, Sassari, Province of South Sardinia, South Sardinia) and the
metropolitan city A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big ci ...
of Cagliari.


Military installations

Around 60% of all the military installations in Italy are in Sardinia, whose area is less than one-tenth of all the Italian territory and whose population is little more than the 2,5%. The island hosts in fact NATO joint forces and Israeli army, Israeli military forces, which use the island's territory to simulate war games; the Inter-service Test and Training Range of Salto di Quirra (PISQ) is one of the most important experimental military training centres in Europe. The bases, used for manufacturing plants and military testing grounds, totally take up more than 350 km2 of the island's land, making Sardinia the most militarized region in Italy and the most militarized island in Europe. Besides the land-occupying installations, where 80% of the military explosives in Italy are used, there are also other military structures located on the sea and along the coastline, roughly equivalent to 20000 km2 (little less than the island's surface), being made inaccessible to the civil population when military exercises are held. Among the most notable military bases on the island are the Interagency Polygons in Quirra, Capo Teulada and Capo Frasca, used by Italian and NATO forces to test-fire ballistic missiles and weapons and by Italian Space Agency, Italian and European Space Agency to test space vehicles and for orbital launches. Until 2008, the US navy also had a nuclear submarine base in the Maddalena Archipelago. Depleted uranium and thorium dust from missile tests has been linked to an increase in cancers according to activists and local politicians. In the late 1980s, a high level of birth defects occurred near the
Salto di Quirra Salto di Quirra is a restricted weapons testing range and rocket launching site near Perdasdefogu on Sardinia. It is the largest military range in Italy, composed of 12000 hectares of land owned by the Italian Ministry of Defence and one of the ...
weapons testing site after old munitions were destroyed.


Culture

Sardinia is the only Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region in Italy where its special Statute uses the term ''popolo'' (distinct people) to refer to its inhabitants. While this formula is also used by
Veneto it, Veneto (man) it, Veneta (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = ...
, which unlike Sardinia is an Regions of Italy#Regions with ordinary statute, ordinary region, the Sardinian Statute is adopted with a constitutional law. In both cases, such term is not meant to imply any legal difference between Sardinians and any other citizen of the country.


Architecture

Of the prehistoric architecture in Sardinia there are numerous testimonies such as the ''domus de janas'' (hypogeic tombs), the
Giants' grave Giants' tomb (Italian: '' Tomba dei giganti'', Sardinian: ''Tumba de zigantes'' / ''gigantis'') is the name given by local people and archaeologists to a type of Sardinian megalithic gallery grave built during the Bronze Age by the Nuragic civ ...
, the megalithic circles, the menhirs, the dolmens and the Nuragic holy well, well temples; however, the element that more than any other characterizes the Sardinian prehistoric landscape are the
nuraghe The nuraghe (, ; plural: Logudorese Sardinian , Campidanese Sardinian , Italian ), or also nurhag in English, is the main type of ancient megalithic edifice found in Sardinia, developed during the Nuragic Age between 1900 and 730 B.C. ...
; the remains of thousands of these
Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
buildings of various types (simple and complex) are still visible today. There are also numerous traces left by the Phoenicians and Punics who introduced new urban forms on the coasts. The
Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
gave a new administrative structure to the whole island through the restructuring of several cities, the creation of new centers and the construction of many infrastructures of which the ruins remain, such as the palace of Re Barbaro in Porto Torres or the Roman Amphitheatre of Cagliari. Even from the early Christian and Byzantine epoch there are several testimonies throughout the territory both on the coasts and inside, especially linked to buildings of worship. A particular development had Romanesque architecture during the
Judicates The Judicates (, or in Sardinian, in Latin, or in Italian), in English also referred to as Sardinian Kingdoms, Sardinian Judgedoms or Judicatures, were independent states that took power in Sardinia in the Middle Ages, between the ninth a ...
period. Starting from 1063 the Sardinian Judges ('), through substantial donations, had favored the arrival to the island of monks of different orders from various regions of Italian peninsula, Italy and France. These circumstances favored in turn the arrival to the island of workers from Pisa, Lombardy,
Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...
and Muslim Spain, giving rise to unprecedented artistic manifestations, marked by the fusion of these experiences. The cornerstone in the evolution of Romanesque architectural forms was the basilica of San Gavino in Porto Torres. Among the most relevant examples there are the cathedrals of Sant'Antioco di Bisarcio (Ozieri), San Pietro di Sorres in Borutta, San Nicola (Ottana), San Nicola di Ottana, the palatine chapel of Santa Maria del Regno of Ardara, Sardinia, Ardara, the Santa Giusta Cathedral, Nostra Signora di Tergu, the Basilica di Saccargia in Codrongianos and Santa Maria, Uta, Santa Maria di Uta and, of the 13th century, the cathedrals of Santa Maria di Monserrato (Tratalias) and Dolianova Cathedral, San Pantaleo (Dolianova). As for military architecture, numerous Castles of Sardinia, castles to defend the territory were built during this period. At the beginning of the 14th century date the fortifications and towers of Cagliari, designed by Giovanni Capula. After their arrival in 1324, the Aragonese concentrated the first realizations in Cagliari; the oldest Catalan Gothic church in Sardinia is the shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria. Also in Cagliari in the same years the Aragonese chapel was built inside the cathedral. In the first half of the fifteenth century a real Gothic jewel was built, the complex of San Domenico, which included the church and the convent, almost completely destroyed during the air raids of 1943, and of which only the cloister remains. Other works were the churches of San Francesco of Stampace (of which only a part of the cloister remains), Sant'Eulalia and San Giacomo. In
Alghero Alghero (; ca, label= Alguerese, L'Alguer ; sc, S'Alighèra ; sdc, L'Aliera ) is a city of about 45,000 inhabitants in the Italian insular province of Sassari in northwestern Sardinia, next to the Mediterranean Sea. The city's name comes from ...
in the second half of the fifteenth century the construction of the church of San Francesco and in the sixteenth century of the Alghero Cathedral, cathedral began. Renaissance architecture, although poorly represented, includes notable examples such as the installation of the Sassari Cathedral, cathedral of San Nicola di Sassari (late Gothic but with a strong Renaissance influence), the church of Sant'Agostino di Cagliari (designed by Palearo Fratino), the church of Santa Caterina in Sassari (designed by Bernardoni, a pupil of Vignola). On the contrary, the Baroque architecture has found wide prominence, interesting examples are the Collegiata di Sant'Anna in Cagliari, the facade of the Cathedral of San Nicola in Sassari, the church of San Michele in Cagliari, as well as the Cagliari Cathedral, cathedral of Cagliari, Ales, Sardinia, Ales and
Oristano Oristano (; sc, Aristanis ) is an Italian city and ''comune'', and capital of the Province of Oristano in the central-western part of the island of Sardinia. It is located on the northern part of the Campidano plain. It was established as the pr ...
, rebuilt or modified between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Starting from the nineteenth century, new architectural forms of Neoclassical architecture, neoclassical inspiration spread throughout the island. Among the most important figures of this architectural and urban phase is that of the architect from Cagliari Gaetano Cima, whose works are scattered throughout the Sardinian territory. Alongside the works of Cima, it is worth mentioning those of Giuseppe Cominotti (Palazzo and Civic Theater of Sassari) and Antonio Cano (dome of S. Maria di Betlem in Sassari and the cathedral of Santa Maria della Neve in Nuoro). In the second half of the nineteenth century in Sassari was built the neo Gothic palace Giordano (1878) which is one of the earliest examples of Revivalism (architecture), revivalism in the island. An interesting realization of Eclecticism in art, eclectic style, derived from the union between revivalist and Art Nouveau models, appears to be the City hall of Cagliari, completed in the early twentieth century. The advent of fascism has strongly influenced architecture in Sardinia in the twenties and thirties: interesting achievements of that period are the new centers of Fertilia,
Arborea Arborea is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Oristano, Sardinia, Italy, whose economy is largely based on agriculture and cattle breeding with production of vegetables, rice, fruit and milk (notably the local milk product Arborea). Histo ...
and the city of Carbonia, Sardinia, Carbonia, one of the greatest examples of rationalist architecture.


Art

Numerous findings of the typical statues of the Mother Goddess and pottery engraved with geometric designs testify the artistic expressions of the Pre-Nuragic Sardinia, Pre-Nuragic peoples. Subsequently, the
Nuragic civilization The Nuragic civilization, also known as the Nuragic culture, was a civilization or culture on Sardinia (Italy), the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, which lasted from the 18th century BC (Middle Bronze Age) (or from t ...
produced hundreds of Nuragic bronze statuettes, bronze statuettes and the enigmatic stone statuary of the Giants of Mont'e Prama. The union between the nuragic populations and the merchants coming from every part of the Mediterranean led to a refined production of gold artifacts, ring (jewellery), rings, earrings and jewelry of all kinds, but also votive steles and wall decorations. In addition to architecture linked to public works, the Romans introduced the Roman mosaic, mosaics and decorated the rich villas of the patricians with sculptures and paintings. In the Middle Ages, during the Judicates period, the architecture of the churches were enriched with capital (architecture), capitals, sarcophagi, frescoes, marble altars and later embellished with retables, paintings by important artists such as the Master of Castelsardo, Pietro Cavaro, Andrea Lusso, and the school of the so-called Master of Ozieri who was headed by Giovanni del Giglio and Pietro Giovanni Calvano, of Siena, Senese origin. In the nineteenth century and in early twentieth century originated the myths of an uncontaminated and timeless island. Recounted by the many travelers who visited Sardinia in that period, like D. H. Lawrence, such myths were celebrated mainly by Sardinian artists such as Giuseppe Biasi, Francesco Ciusa, Filippo Figari, Mario Delitala and Stanis Dessy. In their works they highlighted the autochthonous values of the agro-pastoral world, not yet homologated to the modernity that was pressing from the outside. Other important Sardinian artists of the second half of the twentieth century were Costantino Nivola, Maria Lai, Albino Manca and Pinuccio Sciola.


World Heritage Sites

Megalithic building structures called
nuraghe The nuraghe (, ; plural: Logudorese Sardinian , Campidanese Sardinian , Italian ), or also nurhag in English, is the main type of ancient megalithic edifice found in Sardinia, developed during the Nuragic Age between 1900 and 730 B.C. ...
s are scattered in great numbers throughout Sardinia. Su Nuraxi di Barumini is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997.


Languages

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
, which is the official language throughout Italy, is the most widely spoken language today, followed by the island's indigenous language, Sardinian (''sardu''). Sardinian is a distinct branch of the Romance language family, going either by the same name or by Southern Romance: it is therefore a separate language rather than an Italian dialect, and it is also closer to its
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
roots than Italian itself. Sardinian has been formally recognized as one of Italy's twelve historical minority language, ethnolinguistic minorities since 1997, by regional and Italian law. The language has been influenced by
Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
, Spanish and recently Italian, while the once spoken Paleo-Sardinian language, Nuragic contributes many features to it in many ancient remnants. In 2006 the regional administration has approved the use of a single standardised writing system, the so-called ''Limba Sarda Comuna'', in official acts. As a literary language, Sardinian is gaining importance, despite heated debate about the lack of a commonly acknowledged standard orthography and controversial proposed solutions to this problem. The two main orthographies of the language are in fact Campidanese language, Campidanese (''sardu campidanesu''), used in central southern Sardinia, and Logudorese language, Logudorese (''sardu logudoresu''), extending northwards almost to the suburbs of Sassari. The Sardinian language is quite different from the other Romance languages and is homogeneous in terms of Morphology (linguistics), morphology, syntax and lexicon, but it also shows a spectrum of variation in terms of phonetics between the Northern and the Southern dialects. Sassarese (''sassaresu'') and
Gallurese Gallurese () is a Romance language from the Italo-Dalmatian family spoken in the region of Gallura, northeastern Sardinia. It is sometimes considered a dialect of southern Corsican or a transitional language between Corsican and Sardinian. ...
(''gadduresu'') are classified as Corsican language#Corsican in Sardinia, Corso-Sardinian languages, therefore belonging to the Italo-Dalmatian languages, Italo-Dalmatian branch rather than to the Sardinian one, and are spoken in the north. In Sardinia there are a few language islands:
Algherese Algherese or Alguerese (Algherese: ) is the variant of Catalan spoken in the city of Alghero ( in Catalan), in the northwest of Sardinia, Italy. The dialect has its roots in 1372, when Catalan-speaking colonists were allowed to repopulate Al ...
(''alguerés'') is a dialect of
Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
spoken in the city of
Alghero Alghero (; ca, label= Alguerese, L'Alguer ; sc, S'Alighèra ; sdc, L'Aliera ) is a city of about 45,000 inhabitants in the Italian insular province of Sassari in northwestern Sardinia, next to the Mediterranean Sea. The city's name comes from ...
; on the islands of San Pietro Island, San Pietro and
Sant'Antioco Sant'Antioco (; sc, Santu Antiogu) is the name of both an island and a municipality (''comune'') in southwestern Sardinia, in the Province of South Sardinia, in Sulcis zone. With a population of 11,730, the municipality of Sant'Antioco it is the ...
, located in the extreme south west of Sardinia, the local population speaks a variant of Ligurian language (Romance), Ligurian called Tabarchino (''tabarchin''); fewer and fewer people speak Venetian language, Venetian, Friulian language, Friulian and Istriot language, Istriot in
Arborea Arborea is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Oristano, Sardinia, Italy, whose economy is largely based on agriculture and cattle breeding with production of vegetables, rice, fruit and milk (notably the local milk product Arborea). Histo ...
and Fertilia, since these villages have been populated in the 1920s and 1930s by mainland colonists who came from northeastern Italy, and families from Istria and Dalmatia immediately after
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. Due to the Italian assimilation policies carried out since the late 18th century and the ongoing cultural assimilation, absorption into the Italian culture, over the course of time the once prevalent indigenous language has been increasingly losing ground to Italian and the process of ongoing language shift has led to its Endangered language, endangerment. In fact, according to the data published by
ISTAT The Italian National Institute of Statistics ( it, Istituto nazionale di statistica; Istat) is the main producer of official statistics in Italy. Its activities include the census of population, economic censuses and a number of social, economic ...
in 2006, 52.5% of the Sardinian population speaks only Italian in the family environment, while 29.3% alternates Italian and Sardinian and only 16.6% uses Sardinian or other non-Italian languages; outside the circle of family and friends, the last option drops to 5.2%. The resulting Italianization has led to a steep decline of the Sardinian language as well as produced a new non-standard variety of today's majority idiom, Italian: Regional Italian#Sardinia, regional Italian of Sardinia (, ''IrS''). Following the recent growth of the foreign-born population, the presence of other languages, principally Romanian language, Romanian, Arabic, Wolof language, Wolof and Chinese language, Chinese, is also expanding in some urban areas.


Literature

The first literary work in Sardinian language dates back to the second half of the 15th century: a poem inspired by the life of the holy Porto Torres martyrs by the archbishop of Sassari Antonio Cano. Literary production had a remarkable development in the 16th century, the protagonist was Antonio Lo Frasso, his ''Los diez libros de Fortuna de Amor'' is mentioned in the Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. This work is written mainly in Spanish, but there are parts written in Catalan and in the Sardinian language. Multilingualism was a characteristic trait of the islanders of that time, among them Sigismondo Arquer, Giovanni Francesco Fara and Pietro Delitala stood out. Delitala wrote in Italian, then Tuscan, and Gerolamo Araolla in all the three languages (Sardinian, Spanish and Italian). But already in the 17th century there was a total integration in the Iberian world as demonstrated by the works in Spanish of the poets José Delitala y Castelvì, Joseph Zatrillas Vico and the writers Francesco Angelo de Vico and Salvatore Vidal. From 1720, with the passage of the
Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...
, to the House of Savoy, Italian became the official language. In the 19th century there is an interest of Sardinian authors for the history and culture of Sardinia: Giovanni Spano undertakes the first archaeological excavations, Giuseppe Manno writes the first great general history of the island, Pasquale Tola publishes important documents of the past and writes biographies of illustrious Sardinians. Alberto La Marmora travels the island far and wide, studying in detail and writing an impressive four-part work entitled ''Voyage en Sardaigne''. The Sardinian society of the Early 20th century is told by
Grazia Deledda Grazia Maria Cosima Damiana Deledda (; 27 September 1871 – 15 August 1936), also known in Sardinian language as Gràssia or Gràtzia Deledda (), was an Italian writer who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926 "for her idealistically ...
, Enrico Costa and the poet Sebastiano Satta. In this century, we must remember also the literary production of political characters of great value such as Antonio Gramsci and Emilio Lussu. After the Second World War, Giuseppe Dessì emerged, known mainly for his novel ''Paese d'ombre''. In more recent years, the autobiographical novels of Gavino Ledda ''Padre Padrone'' and Salvatore Satta ''Il Giorno del Giudici'' had a wide echo, in addition to the works of Sergio Atzeni and other writers active in the recent decades.


Traditional clothes

Colourful and of various and original forms, the Sardinian traditional clothes are a clear symbol of belonging to specific collective identities. Although the basic model is homogeneous and common throughout the island, each town or village has its own traditional clothing which differentiates it from the others.


Music

Sardinia is home to one of the oldest forms of vocal polyphony, generally known as canto a tenore, cantu a tenore. In 2005, Unesco classed the ''cantu a tenore'' among intangible world heritage. Several famous musicians have found it irresistible, including Frank Zappa, Ornette Coleman, and Peter Gabriel. The latter travelled to the town of
Bitti Bitti ( sc, Bitzi) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Nuoro in the Italian region Sardinia, about north of Cagliari and about north of Nuoro. Bitti borders the municipalities of Alà dei Sardi, Buddusò, Lodè, Lula, Nule, Ona ...
in the central mountainous region and recorded the now world-famous Tenores di Bitti CD on his Real World label. The guttural sounds produced in this form make a remarkable sound, similar to Tuvan throat singing. Another polyphonic style of singing, more like the Corsican ''paghjella'' and liturgic in nature, is found in Sardinia and is known as ''cantu a cuncordu''. Another unique instrument is the launeddas. Three reed-canes (two of them glued together with beeswax) produce distinctive harmonies, which have their roots many thousands of years ago, as demonstrated by the bronze statuettes from Ittiri, of a man playing the three reed canes, dated to 2000 BC. Beyond this, the tradition of ''cantu a chiterra'' (guitar songs) has its origins in town squares, when artists would compete against one another. The most famous singer of this genre are Maria Carta and Elena Ledda. Sardinian culture is alive and well, and young people are actively involved in their own music and dancing. In 2004, BBC presenter Andy Kershaw travelled to the island with Sardinian music specialist Pablo Farba and interviewed many artists. His programme can be heard on BBC Radio 3. Sardinia has produced a number of notable jazz musicians such as Antonello Salis, Marcello Melis, and Paolo Fresu. The main opera houses of the island are the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari and the Teatro Comunale in Sassari .


Cuisine

Meat, dairy products, grains and vegetables constitute the most basic elements of the traditional Sardinian diet, along with, to a lesser extent, seafoods such as rock lobster (''aligusta''), scampi, bottarga (''butàriga''), squid, and tuna. Suckling pig (''porcheddu'') and wild boar (''sirbone'') are roasted on the spit or boiled in stews of beans and vegetables, thickened with bread. Herbs such as Mentha, mint and myrtle are used. Much Sardinian bread is made dry, which keeps longer than high-moisture breads. Those are baked as well, including ''civraxiu'', ''coccoi pintau'', a highly decorative bread and ''pistoccu'' made with flour and water only, originally meant for herders, but often served at home with tomatoes, basil, oregano, garlic and a strong cheese. Traditional cheeses include pecorino sardo, pecorino romano, casizolu, ricotta and the casu marzu (notable for containing live insect larvae). One of the most famous of foods is pane carasau, the flat bread of Sardinia, famous for its thin crunchiness. Originally the making of this bread was a hard process which needed three women to do the job. This flat bread is always made by hand as it gives a different flavor the more the dough is worked. After working the dough it is rolled out in very thin circles and placed in an extremely hot stone oven where the dough will blow up into a ball shape. Once the dough achieves that state it is then removed from the oven where it is then cut into two thin sheets and stacked to go back into the oven. Alcoholic beverages include many indigenous wines such as Grenache, Cannonau, Malvasia, Vernaccia, Vermentino, various liquors like Aguardiente#Sardinia, Abbardente, Grappa, Filu Ferru and Mirto (liqueur), Mirto. Beer is the most drunk alcoholic beverage; Sardinia boasts the highest consumption per capita of beer in Italy (twice higher than the national average). Birra Ichnusa is the most commercialized beer produced in Sardinia.


Sports


Football

Cagliari is home to Cagliari Calcio, which was founded in 1920 and play in Serie B, the Italian second division; it won the Italian Championship in the 1969–70 Serie A season, becoming the first club in Southern Italy to achieve such a result. Today, home matches are played at the Unipol Domus. The island's other major teams are Olbia's Olbia Calcio 1905, Olbia Calcio and Sassari's Torres Calcio; they both usually play in the national lower leagues. However the latter's Women's association football, women's team counterparts A.S.D. FC Sassari Torres Femminile, Torres Femminile are 7 times Serie A (women's football), national champions. The Sardinia national football team, Sardinian national football team has also joined Confederation of Independent Football Associations, CONIFA, a football federation for all associations outside FIFA.


Basketball

Sassari is home to Dinamo Basket Sassari, the only Sardinian professional basketball club playing in the Lega Basket Serie A, the highest level club competition in Italian professional basketball. It was founded in 1960, and is also known as Dinamo Banco di Sardegna thanks to a long sponsorship deal with the Sardinian bank. Since its promotion in Lega A in 2010, it has been enjoying the support of fans from Sassari and all over Sardinia with full-house matches on every game played at home. Dinamo Sassari achieved the highest titles in the Italian basketball in 2015, winning the Italian Basketball Cup, Coppa Italia, the Italian Basketball Supercup, Supercoppa and the 2014–15 Lega Basket Serie A, Italian basketball championship.


Motor racing

In the Province of Sassari is the Autodromo di Mores, Mores motor racing circuit, the only Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA Circuit homologated by CSAI (Cars) and the IMF (Motorcycles), in Sardinia. Cagliari hosted a Formula 3000 race in 2002 and 2003 on a 2.414-km street circuit around Sant'Elia stadium. In 2003, Renault F1's Jarno Trulli and former Ferrari driver Jean Alesi did a spectacular exhibition. At the Italian Grand Prix, Grand Prix BMW-F1 driver Robert Kubica took part in a Formula Three, F3 car, as did BMW WTCC Augusto Farfus, GP2 Series, GP2's Fairuz Fauzy and Vitaly Petrov. Since 2004 Sardinia has hosted the Rally d'Italia Sardegna, a rallying, rally competition in the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA World Rally Championship schedule. The rally is held on narrow, twisty, sandy and bumpy mountainous roads in the north of the island.


Water sports

Sardinia is well known for scuba diving and snorkeling activities also due to the many underwater caves and caverns located in
Alghero Alghero (; ca, label= Alguerese, L'Alguer ; sc, S'Alighèra ; sdc, L'Aliera ) is a city of about 45,000 inhabitants in the Italian insular province of Sassari in northwestern Sardinia, next to the Mediterranean Sea. The city's name comes from ...
and Cala Gonone, Capo Caccia and Punta Giglio limestone cliffs, and many sunken shipwrecks. Around the island there are many diving centers offering scuba diving services with equipment rental and guided tours. On the island of Caprera is the ''Centro Velico Caprera'', considered one of the largest sailing schools in the
Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
, founded in 1967. The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, located in Porto Cervo and founded in 1967, is the main yachting club on the island. Annually the island hosts the Loro Piana Super Yacht Regatta and the Maxy Yacht Rolex Cup. Part of the Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena, Louis Vuitton Trophy was held in the
Maddalena archipelago The Maddalena Archipelago is a group of islands in the Strait of Bonifacio between Corsica (France) and Sardinia (Italy). The whole archipelago makes the territory of the ''La Maddalena'' comune in Sardinia. Geography The archipelago consists ...
in 2010. ''Vento di Sardegna'' ('Wind of Sardinia') was a sailboat sponsored by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia. Its skipper, Andrea Mura, won the Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race in 2013 and in 2017, the Two Handed Transatlantic Race (Twostar) regatta in 2012 and the Route du Rhum. Porto Pollo, north of Palau (OT), Palau, is a bay well known by windsurfing, windsurfers and kitesurfing, kitesurfers. The bay is divided by a thin tongue of land that separates it into areas for advanced and beginner/intermediate windsurfers. There is also a restricted area for kitesurfing. Many freestyle windsurfers went to Porto Pollo for training and 2007 saw the finale of the freestyle Pro Kids Europe 2007 contest. Because of the Venturi effect between Sardinia and Corsica, the western wind accelerates between the islands and creates the wind that makes Porto Pollo popular among windsurfing enthusiasts. Cagliari hosts regularly international regattas, such as the RC44 championship, Farr 40 World championship, Audi MedCup and Kite Championships. In view of the 36th America's Cup, scheduled to take place in New Zealand in 2021, ''Luna Rossa Challenge'' has chosen Cagliari as place for its preparation.


Winter sports

Four ski resorts are located on the Gennargentu Range at Separadorgiu, Monte Spada, S'Arena and Bruncu Spina; they are equipped with ski schools, chairlifts, skilifts and ski equipment hire.


Traditional sports

''S'Istrumpa'', also known as Sardinian Wrestling, is a traditional Sardinian sport, officially recognized by the Italian National Olympic Committee (C.O.N.I.) and the International Federation of Celtic Wrestling (I.F.C.W.). It shows similarities to Scottish Backhold and the gouren. Istrumpa's wrestlers participate annually at the championships for Celtic wrestling stiles. Sardinia boasts ancient equestrian traditions and is the Italian region with the highest number of horse riders (29% of population) and boasts also fine darts tradition, which many believe originated in the Sassari region of the country towards the end of the 15th century. In those days, the darts were carved from beech (''fagus'') wood and the flights were feathers drawn from the indigenous purple swamphen (named in Italian , 'sultana bird'), famed for its spectacular violet-blue plumage.


Environment

Following an enormous reforestation plan Sardinia has become the Italian region with the largest forest extension. 1,213,250 hectares (12,132 km2) or 50% of the island is covered by forested areas. The ''Corpo forestale e di vigilanza ambientale della Regione Sarda'' is the Sardinian Forestry Corps. Sardinia is one of the regions in Italy which are most affected by forest fires during the summer. The Regional Landscape Plan prohibits new building activities on the coast (except in urban centers), next to forests, lakes or other environmental or cultural sites and the Conservatoria delle Coste, Coastal conservation agency ensures the protection of natural areas on the Sardinian coast. Renewable energies have increased noticeably in recent years, mainly wind power, favoured by the windy climate, but also solar power and biofuel, based on jatropha oil and colza oil. 586.8 megawatts of wind power capacity were installed on the island at the end of 2009.


Fauna

Sardinia is home to a wide variety of rare or uncommon animals, such as several species of mammals, many of them belonging to an endemic subspecies: the Mediterranean monk seal, Sarcidano horse, Giara horse, albino donkey, Sardinian feral cat, European mouflon, mouflon, Sardinian long-eared bat, Sardinian deer, fallow deer, Red fox#Sardinia, Sardinian fox (''Vulpes vulpes ichnusae''), Sardinian hare (''Lepus capensis mediterraneus''), wild boar (''Sus scrofa meridionalis''), edible dormouse and European pine marten. Rare amphibians, found only on the island, are the Sardinian brook salamander, brown cave salamander, imperial cave salamander, Monte Albo cave salamander, Supramonte cave salamander and Sarrabus cave salamander (''Speleomantes sarrabusensis''); the Sardinian tree frog is also found in Corsica and in the Tuscan Archipelago. Among reptiles worthy of note are Bedriaga's rock lizard, the Tyrrhenian wall lizard and Fitzinger's algyroides, endemic species of Sardinia and Corsica. The island is inhabited by terrestrial tortoises and sea turtles like Hermann's tortoise, the spur-thighed tortoise, marginated tortoise (''Testudo marginata sarda''), Nabeul tortoise, loggerhead sea turtle and green sea turtle. A new arachnid species, endemic to the island, has been recently found: the Nuragic spider. Due to its insularity, in Sardinia there are many species of endemic insects, not present in other parts of the world, such as, for example, the Galeruca sardoa and the Anoxia matutinalis sardoa. Sardinia has four endemic subspecies of birds found nowhere else in the world: its great spotted woodpecker (ssp ''harterti''), great tit (ssp ''ecki''), common chaffinch (ssp ''sarda''), and Eurasian jay (ssp ''ichnusae''). It also shares a further 10 endemic subspecies of bird with Corsica. In some cases Sardinia is a delimited part of the species range. For example, the subspecies of hooded crow, ''Corvus cornix'' ssp ''cornix'' occurs in Sardinia and Corsica, but no further south. Some birds of prey found here are the griffon vulture, common buzzard, golden eagle, long-eared owl, western marsh harrier, peregrine falcon, European honey buzzard, Sardinian goshawk (''Accipiter gentilis arrigonii''), Bonelli's eagle and Eleonora's falcon, whose name comes from Eleonor of Arborea, national heroine of Sardinia, expert in falconry. The hundreds of lagoons and coastal lakes that dot the island are home for many species of wading birds, such as the greater flamingo. Conversely, Sardinia lacks many species common on the European continent, such as the Viperinae, viper, wolf, bear and marmot. The island has also long been used for grazing flocks of indigenous Sardinian sheep. The Sardinian Anglo-Arab is a horse breed that was established in Sardinia, where it has been selectively bred for more than one hundred years. Three different breeds of dogs are peculiar to Sardinia: the Sardinian Shepherd Dog, the Dogo Sardesco and the Levriero Sardo.


Natural parks and reserves

Over of Sardinian territory is environmentally preserved (about 25% of the island's territory). The island has three Italian national park, national parks: * 1. Asinara National Park, * 2. Arcipelago di La Maddalena National Park, and * 3. Gennargentu National Park. : The numbers correspond to those in the map to right. Ten List of regional parks of Italy, regional parks: * 4. Parco del Limbara * 5. Parco del Marghine e Goceano * 6. Parco del Sinis – Montiferru * 7. Parco di Monte Arci * 8. Giara di Gesturi, Parco della Giara di Gesturi * 9. Parco di Monte Linas – Oridda – Marganai * 10. Parco dei Sette Fratelli – Monte Genas * 11. Parco del Sulcis * Parco naturale regionale di Porto Conte * Parco regionale Molentargius – Saline There are 60 wildlife reserves, 5 W.W.F oases, 25 natural monuments and one Geomineral Park, preserved by UNESCO. Northern Sardinian Coasts are included in the Pelagos Sanctuary for Mediterranean Marine Mammals, a Marine Protected Area, that covers a surface of about , aimed at the protection of marine mammals.


See also

* History of Sardinia * List of islands of Italy * List of monarchs of Sardinia * List of tourist attractions in Sardinia * Sardinian people, List of Sardinians * Sardinian language * Sardinian Literary Spring * Sardinian literature * Sardinian medieval kingdoms


References


Notes


Bibliography

* * * Ong, Brenda Man Qing, and Francesco Perono Cacciafoco. (2022). Unveiling the Enigmatic Origins of Sardinian Toponyms. ''Languages'', 7, 2, 131: 1-19
Paper
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7020131. * UNESCO World Heritage Site inscription data for Su Nuraxi di Barumini (2008)


Further reading

* Tennant, Robert. ''Sardinia and its Resources'' (2010) * ''Insight Guide Sardinia'' by Nick Bruno (2010) * Tracey Heatherington. ''Wild Sardinia: Indigeneity and the Global Dreamtimes of Environmentalism'' (2010) 314 pages; examines the clash between conservation efforts and traditional commons; focuses on resistance in the town of Orgosolo to Gennargentu National Park. * ''Sardinia'' (Eyewitness Travel Guide) by Fabrizio Arditio (2009
excerpt and text search
* ''Sardinia'' (Regional Guide) by Duncan Garwood (2009
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''Sardinia in Five Senses''
by Charming Italy Publishers (2008) * ''The Rough Guide to Sardinia'' (Rough Guide Travel Guides) by Robert Andrews (2007
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* * Lortat-Jacob, Bernard. ''Sardinian Chronicles'' (1995) * ''Sardinia: The Undefeated Island'' by Mary Delane (1968) * ''Sardinia, Ancient Peoples and Places'' by Margaret Guido (1963) * ''Sardinia Side Show'' by Amelie Posse Brazdova (1930) * ''The Island of Sardinia'' by John Warre Tyndale vol I (1849
From Google books
* ''The Island of Sardinia'' by John Warre Tyndale vol II (1849
From Google books
* ''The Island of Sardinia'' by John Warre Tyndale vol III (1849
From Google books
* ''Sketch of the present state of the island of Sardinia'' by William Henry Smyth (1928
From Google books
* DH Lawrence ''Sea and Sardinia'' (1921)


External links

*
Department of Tourism, Crafts and Commerce of Sardinia

Sardegna Digital Library
{{Authority control Sardinia, Autonomous regions of Italy Blue zones Islands of Italy Mediterranean islands NUTS 2 statistical regions of the European Union Wine regions of Italy