Sardinia
Encyclopedia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea
(after Sicily
and before Cyprus
). It is an autonomous region
of Italy
, and the nearest land masses are (clockwise from north) the French
island of Corsica
, the Italian Peninsula
, Sicily
, Tunisia
and the Spanish
Balearic Islands
.
The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[], romanised
as sardus (feminine sarda); that the name had a religious connotation is suggested from its use also as the adjective for the ancient Sardinian mythological hero-god Sardus Pater
"Sardinian Father" (misunderstood by many modern Sardinians/Italians as being "Father Sardus"), as well as being the stem of the adjective "sardonic
". Sardinia was called Ichnusa (the Latinised form of the Greek Hyknousa), Sandalion, Sardinia and Sardo by the ancient Greeks and the Romans.
, with an area of 23,821 km². It is situated between 38° 51' and 41° 15' latitude north and 8° 8' and 9° 50' east longitude. To the west of Sardinia is the Balearic Sea
, a unit of the Mediterranean Sea; to Sardinia's east is the Tyrrhenian Sea
, which is also an element of the Mediterranean Sea.
The coasts of Sardinia (1,849 km long) are generally high and rocky, with long, relatively straight stretches of coastline, many outstanding headlands, a few wide, deep bays, ria
s, many inlets and with various smaller islands off the coast.
The island has an ancient geoformation and, unlike Sicily and the mainland of Italy, is not earthquake-prone. Its rocks date from the Palaeozoic Era (up to 500 million years old). Due to long erosion processes the island's highlands, formed of granite, schist, trachyte, basalt (called "jaras" or "gollei"), sandstone and dolomite limestone (called tonneri or "heels"), average at between 300 to 1,000 metres. The highest peak is Punta La Marmora
(1,834 m), part of the Gennargentu
Ranges in the centre of the island. Other mountain chains are Monte Limbara (1,362 m) in the northeast, the Chain of Marghine and Goceano
(1,259 m) running crosswise for 40 km (24.85 mi) towards the north, the Monte Albo
(1057 metres), the Sette Fratelli Range in the southeast, and the Sulcis Mountains
and the Monte Linas (1236 metres) in the southwest and in Oristano (Monte Arci, 1.700 m). The island's ranges and plateaux are separated by wide alluvial valleys and flatlands, the main ones being the Campidano
in the southwest between Oristano
and Cagliari
and the Nurra
in the northwest.
Sardinia has few major rivers, the largest being the Tirso, 151 km (93.83 mi) long, which flows into the Sea of Sardinia
, the Coghinas
(115 km) and the Flumendosa
(127 km). There are 54 artificial lakes and dams which supply water and electricity. The main ones are Lake Omodeo
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 1850 km (1,149.54 mi) of the coastline.
The island has a typical Mediterranean climate
. During the year there are approximately 300 days of sunshine, with 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 11 to 17 °C (51.8 to 62.6 F).
The Mistral
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 and makes for a sailor's paradise.
. Though evidence of human visits date from the Palaeolithic period, permanent settlements only appear much later in the Neolithic
age, around 6000 BC.
The first people to settle in northern Sardinia probably came from the Italian mainland via Corsica, particularly from Etruria
(present-day Tuscany), while those who populated the central region of the island around the salt lakes of Cabras and St Giusta may have arrived from the Iberian Peninsula
by way of the Balearic Islands
. The settlements founded around the Gulf of Cagliari seem to be of various origins.
Evidence of trade with Aegean
(Eastern Mediterranean) centres is present in the period 1600 BC onwards; for example fine ceramic products from Cydonia have been recovered in Sardinia. As time passed, the different Sardinian peoples appear to have became united in language and customs, yet remained divided politically as various small, tribal groupings, at times banding together, and at others waging war against each other. Habitations consisted of round thatched stone huts, similar to those of present-day shepherds.
From about 1500 BC onwards, villages were built around the round tower-fortresses called nuraghi (Northern Sardinian nuraghes, Southern Sardinian nuraxis, plurals of nuraghe
and nuraxi respectively), which were often reinforced and enlarged with battlements. The boundaries of tribal territories were guarded by smaller lookout nuraghi erected on strategic hills commanding a view of other territories. Today some 7,000 nuraghi dot the Sardinian landscape. According to some scholars the nuragic peoples are identifiable with the Shardana
, a tribe of the "Sea Peoples
".
ns began visiting Sardinia with increasing frequency, presumably initially needing safe over-night and/or 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, including Britain . The most common ports of call were Caralis, Nora
, Bithia, Sulcis
, Tharros
, Bosa and Olbia
. These soon became important colonies, inhabited by Phoenicia
n traders and their families who traded overseas and with the Sardinians .
In 509 BC, as Phoenicians expanded along the coastal cities, the Sardinians attacked them. The Phoenicians then called upon their fellow Phoenicians in Carthage
for help. For 271 years, the Carthaginian or Punic civilizations flourished alongside each other.
In 238 BC the Carthaginians, as a result of their defeat by the Romans
in the first Punic War, surrendered Sardinia to Rome. Sardinia became a Roman province, and the existing coastal cities were enlarged and embellished, while Coloniae
such as Turris Lybissonis
and Feronia were founded. These were populated by Roman immigrants. The Roman military occupation brought the Nuragic civilization to an end. Roman domination of Sardinia lasted 694 years. Sardinia provided grain to the city of Rome. However, it was often opposed by the Sardinians in the mountainous regions, even though even here the Latin language came to dominate, though not Latin civilization.
led by King Geiseric had migrated to coastal Numidia
(modern Morocco and Algeria) from Spain in AD 429 at the invitation of the Roman governor of North Africa Count Boniface
. The Vandals were seeking safe haven from military pressure by the Romans from Gaul
(modern France, Belgium and North Italy). Boniface was seeking to shore up his military position in the succession struggle following the death of Western Emperor Honorius
. In AD 439, the Vandals
revolted and seized Carthage and Africa (modern Tunisa, and Libya). The new Vandal Kingdom of North Africa
achieved peace with the Romans on favorable terms in AD 442, but in AD 455 another Roman coup d'état killed Emperor Valentinian III
whose daughter had been promised to Geiseric's son. Geiseric, led his powerful fleet to sack Rome
, along the way occupying Caralis and other key coastal cities of Sardinia and claiming the island for his kingdom.
Vandal rule lasted for 77 or 88 years of which there is little detail in the historical record. 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
and apparently continued to manage military, judicial, and civil governmental functions via imperial procedures. (This continuity was not novel to Sardinia; like the Visigoths, the Vandals generally maintained the pretense of the empire, nominally acknowledging Constantinople
and declaring themselves its deputies.) The only Vandal governor of Sardinia about whom there is substantial record is the last, Goddas
, a Visigoth
noble. In AD 530 a coup d'état in Carthage removed King Hilderic
, a convert to Roman Catholicism, in favor of his cousin Gelimer
, an Arian
Christian like most of his kingdom. Goddas was sent to take charge and ensure the loyalty of Roman Catholic Sardinia. He did the exact opposite, declaring the island's independence from Carthage and opening negotiations with Emperor Justinian I
, who had declared war on Hilderic's behalf. In AD 533 Gelimer sent the bulk of his army to Sardinia to subdue Goddas, with the catastrophic result that the Vandal Kingdom was overwhelmed when Justinian's own army under Belisarius
arrived in their absence. The Vandal Kingdom conquered, Sardinia was returned to Byzantine rule.
when the Vandals were defeated by the armies of Justinian I
under the General Belisarius
in the Battle of Tricamarum. This Roman victory over the Vandals in North Africa returned Sardinia to the Roman fold for the next 300 years.
Under Byzantine rule, the island was divided into districts called merèie, which were governed by a judge residing in Caralis (Cagliari
) and garrisoned by an army stationed in Forum Traiani today known as Fordongianus
under the command of a dux. The Byzantines practiced Christianity
and converted the largely pagan population of early medieval Sardinia. Along with lay Christianity, the followers of monastic figures such as St. Basil became established in Sardinia. While Christianity penetrated the majority of the population, the region of Barbagia
remained largely pagan. In Barbagia towards the end of the 6th century, a short-lived independent principality established itself, returning to the local traditional religions. One of its Princes, the last pagan Prince, was Ospitone, who conducted raids upon the neighboring Christian communities controlled by the Byzantine Dux Zabarda. He was later reprimanded by Pope Gregory I
within a letter for "Dum enim Barbaricini omnes ut insensata animalia vivant, deum verum nesciant, ligna autem et lapides adorent(living, all like irrational animals, ignorant of the true God and worshiping wood and stone)." In AD 594. Ospitone was then convinced by Gregory the Great, and likely the circumstances of his conflict with Zabarda, to convert to Christianity after receiving the papal letter. His followers, however, were not immediately convinced and ostracized their prince for a short time before they themselves converted.
Exactly when and how Byzantine rule ended in Sardinia is not known. Direct central control was maintained at least through circa AD 650, after which local legates were empowered in the face of the rebellion of Gregory the Patrician
, Exarch of Africa
and the First Invasion of the Umayyad conquest of North Africa
. There is some evidence that senior Byzantine administration in the Exarchate of Africa
retreated to Cagliari following the final fall of Carthage
to the Arabs in AD 697. The loss of imperial control in Africa led to escalating Moorish and Berber
raids on the island, the first of which is document in AD 705, forcing increased military self-reliance in the province. Communication with the central government became daunting if not impossible during and after the Muslim conquest of Sicily of AD 827 and AD 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 (reigned AD 872 – AD 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.
Whether this final transformation from imperial civil servant to independent sovereign resulted from imperial abandonment or local assertion, by the tenth century, the ‘’Giudici’’ (Latin iudiices, literally meaning "judges," a Byzantine administrative title) )had emerged as the autonomous rulers of Sardinia. The title of iudice changed with the language and local understanding of the position, becoming the Sardinian giudice, essentially sovereign, while giudicato
, literally judgeship, came to mean both "state" and "palace" or "capital."
, derived from the Byzantine magistrate title of iuidici (judici, literally “judge,” or “magistrate”), though they were the equivalent of the equally new sovereign titles “duke,” and “king.” Although the Giudicati were hereditary lordships, the old Roman/Byzantine imperial notion that separated personal title or honor from the state still obtained, so the Giudicato (“judgeship,” essentially, a kingdom) was not regarded as the personal property of the monarch as was common in later European feudalism
. Like the imperial systems, the new order also preserved Republican forms, with national assemblies called corona de logu, although its powers and importance are not well understood by historians. Each Giudicato saw to its own defense, maintained its own laws and administration, and looked after its own foreign and trading affairs.
In the 10th century there were five known Giudicati on Sardinia, but, the annexation of the Giudicato of Agugliastra
by the Giudicato of Cagliari
sometime in the 10th or 11th century stabilized the number at four, where it would remain until the Aragonese invasion of the 14th century. The history of the four Giudicati would be defined by the contest for influence between the rival rising sea powers of Genoa
and Pisa
, and later the ambitions of the Kingdom of Aragon
.
The Giudicato of Cagliari
was allied to the Republic of Genoa
. It was brought to an end in 1258 when its capital, St Igia, was stormed and destroyed by an alliance of Sardinian and Pisan forces. The territory then briefly became a colony of Pisa
.
The Giudicato of Logudoro (sometimes called Torres) was also allied to the Republic of Genoa
and came to an end in 1259 on the death of the judikessa (queen) Adelasia
. The territory was divided up between the Doria
family of Genoa
and the Basserra family of Arborea, while the city of Sassari
became an autonomous city-republic
.
The Giudicato of Gallura
ended in the year 1288, when the last giudice, Nino Visconti
(a friend of Dante Alighieri
), was driven out by the Pisan
s, who occupied the territory.
The Giudicato of Arborea had a longer life compared to the other kingdoms. It lasted some 520 years and had Oristano
as its capital. The kingdom was called Arborea after its coat of arms, which featured a green uprooted tree on a white field. The history of Arborea is entwined with the history of the Sardinian struggle for independence against Aragon
ese invasion.
The first king of Arborea to actively pursue the plan to unite Sardinia under the rule of Arborea was Barisone the First. He managed to be crowned King of Sardinia by the Holy Roman Empire
Emperor Frederick "Barbarossa" the First in 1164. However, in order to obtain the title of King of Sardinia, Barisone the First had taken out a loan from the Republic of Genoa
that he was unable to pay back. For this reason, he was imprisoned by the Republic of Genoa and was detained for 7 years. Barisone never succeeded in uniting Sardinia under his rule because of his financial problems.
In 1297, Pope Boniface VIII established on his own initiative (motu proprio) a hypothetical regnum Sardiniae et Corsicae ("Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica
") in order to settle the War of the Vespers diplomatically. This had broken out in 1282 between the Angevins
and Aragonese
over the possession of Sicily. The Pope offered this newly created crown to James II, the King of Aragon, promising him support should he wish to conquer Pisan Sardinia in exchange for Sicily.
In 1323 the king of Arborea formed an alliance with James II of Aragon against the Pisans, despite being aware of the Aragonese plans to take control of Sardinia, because they saw the Pisans as a bigger threat. It is also important to remember that the kings of Arborea descended in part from an Aragonese family. The Aragonese flag appeared on the Arborean coat of arms and flags along with the uprooted tree until the later conflict between Arborea and Aragon escalated. Following a military campaign which lasted a year or so, the Aragonese occupied the Pisan territories of Cagliari and Gallura along with the city of Sassari, naming them "The Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica". However, soon the king of Arborea started to wage war against the Aragonese, having his own plans to unite Sardinia as one independent kingdom.
When the other Giudicati had been taken over by foreign powers, the kings of Arborea started to see themselves as the legitimate defenders of Sardinian rule and Sardinian interests. They not only waged war against the Kings of Aragon, who were trying to conquer all of Sardinia, they also formalised the legal and political institutions that were the basis of their statehood and independence, such as by promulgating the legal code of the kingdom in the Carta de Logu
(Charter of the Land). The Carta de Logu was originally compiled by Mariano IV of Arborea, and was amended and updated by Mariano's daughter, Queen Eleanor of Arborea
. 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 the Carta de Logu it is clear that the kings and queens of Arborea saw themselves as the legitimate rulers of Sardinia: they stated very clearly that the Carta de Logu applied to the whole of Sardinia, not just to their dominions, and that it had been established to guarantee the well-being and development of the Sardinian state and its people.
In 1353 Peter IV of Aragon
, following Aragonese custom, granted a parliament to the kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica, which was followed in due course by some degree of self-government under a viceroy and judicial independence. This parliament, however, had some very 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 ruled by it.
The Sardinian kingdoms never adopted feudalism, and the Kingdom of Arborea maintained its parliament called the "Corona de Logu". 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 killed if he did not follow the rules of the kingdom.
From 1365 to 1409 the Arborean giudici Mariano IV, Ugone III, Mariano V (assisted by his mother Eleonora, the famous giudicessa regent), and Guglielmo III (the French grandson of Eleonora) succeeded in occupying all of Sardinia except the heavily fortified towns of the Castle of Cagliari (today simply Cagliari) and Alghero
, which for years were the only Aragonese dominions in Sardinia. The Giudicato of Arborea and its monarchs received a great deal of support from many Sardinians of all classes, partly because many Sardinians were strongly against the feudal system that the Kingdom of Aragon
introduced in its domains.
In 1409 Martin I of Sicily
, king of Sicily and heir to the crown of Aragon, defeated the Sardinians at the Battle of Sanluri
(Sa battalla de Seddori in Sardinian). The battle was fought by about 20,000 Sardinians, who had taken up arms voluntarily at a time when the population of Sardinia had been greatly depleted by the plague (and therefore 20,000 Sardinians represented a very considerable number). Despite the Sardinian army outnumbering the Aragonese army, they were defeated. It is estimated that about 5,000 Sardinians were killed in the battle. A field near Sanluri is still known to this day as S'Occidroxiu ("the massacre place").
The kingdom of Arborea finally surrendered only 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 King of Aragon.
The successes of the Kingdom of Aragon were marred by the death of the heir to the Aragon crown, Martin I of Sicily, who died in Cagliari
(where he is buried) of malaria
contracted during the military campaign against the Kingdom of Arborea. Consequently the Crown of Aragon passed to a different dynasty, the Trastàmaras, to Ferdinand I of Aragon
and his descendants through the Compromise of Caspe
in 1412.
The conquest of Sardinia by the Kingdom of Aragon
and the consequent loss of independence also 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 Medieval to the Modern Era, at a time when feudalism had already been abandoned by many other European countries.
and Isabel of Castile, the "Kingdom of Sardinia
" (which was separated from Corsica) became Spanish, with the state symbol of the Four Moors
. Following the failure of the military ventures against the Muslims of Tunis (1535) and Algiers
(1541), Charles V of Spain, in order to defend his Mediterranean territories from pirate raids by the African Berbers
, fortified the Sardinian shores with a system of coastal lookout towers.
The Kingdom of Sardinia remained Spanish for approximately 400 years, from 1323 to 1720, assimilating a number of Spanish traditions, customs and linguistic expressions, nowadays vividly portrayed in the folklore parades of Saint Efisio in Cagliari (May 1), the Cavalcade on Sassari (last but one Sunday in May), and the Redeemer in Nuoro (August 28).
Many famines have been reported in Sardinia. According to Stephen L. Dyson and Robert J. Rowland, "The Jesuits of Cagliari recorded years during the late 1500s "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 persons, out of a total
population of 250,000, are said to have died, and entire villages were devastated..."
In 1708, as a consequence of the Spanish War of Succession, the rule of the Kingdom of Sardinia passed into the hands of the Austrians who occupied the island. In 1717 Cardinal Giulio Alberoni
, minister of Philip V of Spain
, reoccupied Sardinia. In 1718, with the Treaty of London, Sardinia was handed over to the House of Savoy
.
On 28 April 1794, during an uprising in Cagliari
, two Piedmontese officials were killed. That was the start of a revolt (called the "Moti rivoluzionari sardi") all over the island, which culminated in the expulsion of the tyrants. On 28 December 1795 in Sassari
insurgents demonstrating against feudalism, mainly from the region of Logudoro
, occupied the city. On 13 February 1796, in order to suppress a riot, the viceroy Filippo Vivalda gave to the Sardinian magistrate Giovanni Maria Angioy
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 the independence
of Sardinia's people.
In 1799, as a consequence of the Napoleonic Wars
in Italy, the Dukes of Savoy left Turin
and took refuge in Cagliari for some fifteen years. In 1847 the Sardinian parliaments (Stamenti) spontaneously renounced their state autonomy and formed a union with Piedmont in order to have a single parliament, a single magistracy and a single government in Turin.
In 1848 the Italian Wars of Independence broke out for the Unification of Italy and were led by the kings of Sardinia for thirteen years. In 1861 Sardinia joined the newly founded Kingdom of Italy.
During the First World War
the Sardinian soldiers of the Brigata Sassari
distinguished themselves, several being decorated with gold medals and other honours. It was the first and only Italian military unit constituted exclusively from Sardinian soldiers.
The Sardinian writer Grazia Deledda
won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926.
During the Fascist
period, and implementation of the policy of autarky
, several swamps were reclaimed around the island and agrarian communities founded. The main communities were in the area of Oristano, where the village of Mussolinia (now called Arborea
) was located, and in the area adjacent the city of Alghero
, within the region of Nurra
, Fertilia
was founded. Also established during that time was the city of Carbonia, which became the main centre of mining activity. Works to dry the numerous waste lands and the reprise of mining activities favored the arrival of settlers and immigrants, at first from Veneto
, and after World War II
Istrian Italians
and Dalmatian Italians
from territories lost to Yugoslavia
.
The oppression by the fascist regime of its opponents within the region was ruthless. Antonio Gramsci
, one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party
, was arrested and died in prison. Michele Schirru was executed on May 29, 1931, after a failed assassination plot against Benito Mussolini
.
was successfully eliminated with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation
, which facilitated the commencement of the Sardinian tourist boom, mainly focused on beach holidays and elite tourism. Today about ten million people visit the island every year.
With the increase in tourism
, coal decreased in importance. In the 1950s and 1960s the greatest Sardinian migration
began. However, in the early 1960s an industrialization 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
industries, thousands of ex-farmers became industrial workers. Nevertheless, the 1973 oil crisis
caused the termination of employment for thousands of workers employed in the petrochemical industries.
The economic crisis, unemployment
, and the establishment of military base
s in the island (70% of Italian military bases were located in Sardinia) aggravated the crime rate, with increasing kidnappings and political subversion. Communist groups flourished, the most famous being Barbagia Rossa, which perpetrated several terrorist actions between the 1970s and the early 1980s.
In 1983 a militant of an autonomist-indipendentist party, the Sardinian Action Party
(Partito Sardo d'Azione), was elected president of the regional parliament, and in the 1980s several indipendentist
movements were born; in the 1990s some of them became political parties, and in 2006 in the Province of Sassari the first separatist militant was elected. In 1999 the local languages (Sardinian
, Sassarese, Gallurese
, Algherese and Tabarchino) received official status together with Italian
.
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
. For example, the CRS4
(Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia) developed the first Italian website
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
in 1998 and Andala Umts in 1999.
A G8
summit was planned to be held in Sardinia, on the island of La Maddalena
, in July 2009. However in April 2009, the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi
, decided, without convoking the Italian parliament or consulting the governor of Sardinia, to move the summit, even though the works were almost completed, to L'Aquila
, provoking protests among Sardinians that the autonomous status of Sardinia had been violated.
and Sassari
, characterized by a certain amount of enterprise. According to Eurostat
, the 2007 GDP
was €33,823.2 million, resulting in a €20,627 GDP per capita
, in 2009.
The Sardinian economy is penalized due to high costs of transportation of goods and electricity, which is double compared to the continental Italian regions, and triple compared to the EU average. Sardinia is the only Italian region that produces a surplus of electricity, which supply power to the region, and does not import power from abroad, whereas the problem the region had encountered was insufficient transmission links as it is an island situated over 100 km from the 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, in the Italian peninsula, the SACOI is another submarine power cable
that links Sardinia to Italy, crossing Corsica
, from 1965.
The under construction submarine gas pipeline GALSI
, will link Algeria
to Sardinia and further Italy, in 2012.
The per capita income
in Sardinia is the highest of Southern Italy, with 16,540 euros per person.
The unemployment rate for the fourth quarter of 2008 was 8.6%, by the first quarter of 2010 the unemployment rate increased to 16.1%. The rise in unemployment was due to the global financial crisis that hit Sardinian exports, mainly focused on refined oil and chemical products.
(Million €)|| 25,958.1 || 27,547.6 || 28,151.6 || 29,487.3 || 30,595.5 || 31,421.3 || 32,579.0 || 33,823.2
|-
| align=left | GDP per capita nominal
(Euro) || 15,861.0 || 16,871.4 || 17,226.5 || 17,975.7 || 18,581.0 || 19,009.8 || 19,654.3 || 20,444.1
|}
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
(after Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
and before Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
). It is an autonomous region
Regions of Italy
The regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of the state, constituting its first NUTS administrative level. There are twenty regions, of which five are constitutionally given a broader amount of autonomy granted by special statutes....
of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and the nearest land masses are (clockwise from north) the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
island of Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
, the Italian Peninsula
Italian Peninsula
The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is one of the three large peninsulas of Southern Europe , spanning from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south. The peninsula's shape gives it the nickname Lo Stivale...
, Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
and the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
Balearic Islands
Balearic Islands
The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.The four largest islands are: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain with Palma as the capital...
.
The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[], romanised
Romanization
In linguistics, romanization or latinization is the representation of a written word or spoken speech with the Roman script, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system . Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written...
as sardus (feminine sarda); that the name had a religious connotation is suggested from its use also as the adjective for the ancient Sardinian mythological hero-god Sardus Pater
Sardus
Sardus was an ancient mythological hero of the nuragic mythology. Sardus appears in the writings of Sallust and Pausanias.-Ancient sources:...
"Sardinian Father" (misunderstood by many modern Sardinians/Italians as being "Father Sardus"), as well as being the stem of the adjective "sardonic
Sardonicism
Sardonicism is the expression of derision, cynicism or skeptical humor variously through comment, gesture or writing.- Origin :...
". Sardinia was called Ichnusa (the Latinised form of the Greek Hyknousa), Sandalion, Sardinia and Sardo by the ancient Greeks and the Romans.
Geography
Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean SeaMediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
, with an area of 23,821 km². It is situated between 38° 51' and 41° 15' latitude north and 8° 8' and 9° 50' east longitude. To the west of Sardinia is the Balearic Sea
Balearic Sea
The Balearic Sea or Iberian Sea is a body of water in the Mediterranean Sea near the Balearic Islands. In the Catalan language the area is also known as the Catalan-Balearic Sea .The Ebro River flows into this small sea....
, a unit of the Mediterranean Sea; to Sardinia's east is the Tyrrhenian Sea
Tyrrhenian Sea
The Tyrrhenian Sea is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy.-Geography:The sea is bounded by Corsica and Sardinia , Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Basilicata and Calabria and Sicily ....
, which is also an element of the Mediterranean Sea.
The coasts of Sardinia (1,849 km long) are generally high and rocky, with long, relatively straight stretches of coastline, many outstanding headlands, a few wide, deep bays, ria
Ria
A ria 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. Typically, rias have a dendritic, treelike outline although they can be straight and without significant branches. This pattern is inherited from the...
s, many inlets and with various smaller islands off the coast.
The island has an ancient geoformation and, unlike Sicily and the mainland of Italy, is not earthquake-prone. Its rocks date from the Palaeozoic Era (up to 500 million years old). Due to long erosion processes the island's highlands, formed of granite, schist, trachyte, basalt (called "jaras" or "gollei"), sandstone and dolomite limestone (called tonneri or "heels"), average at between 300 to 1,000 metres. The highest peak is Punta La Marmora
Punta La Marmora
Punta La Marmora is a mountain in the Gennargentu range, Ogliastra and Nuoro provinces, Sardinia, Italy in the Barbagia mountain area of inner Sardinia . With its summit at an elevation of 1,834 m, it is the highest peak in the island...
(1,834 m), part of the Gennargentu
Gennargentu
Gennargentu is a large massif in central-southern Sardinia, Italy, encompassing the provinces of Nuoro and Ogliastra. It includes the highest peaks in the island, such as Punta La Marmora , Monte Spada , Punta Erba Irdes , Bruncu Spina and Punta Paulinu .The range forms part of the Gennargentu...
Ranges in the centre of the island. Other mountain chains are Monte Limbara (1,362 m) in the northeast, the Chain of Marghine and Goceano
Monte Rasu
Monte Rasu is a mountain in the Goceano's range, in the central west Sardinia, Italy. Its summit, called Punta Manna di Monte Rasu , is the highest peak in the province of Sassari....
(1,259 m) running crosswise for 40 km (24.85 mi) towards the north, the Monte Albo
Monte Albo
The Monte Albo is a limestone massif 13 kilometres wide, in the central eastern portion of Island of Sardinia, Italy.Punta Ferulargiu, 1057 meters, is the highest point....
(1057 metres), the Sette Fratelli Range in the southeast, and the Sulcis Mountains
Sulcis Mountains
The Sulcis Mountains is a mountain chain in Sardinia, Italy. Together with the Monte Linas massif, from which they are separated by the flood plain of the Cixerri River, they form the Sulcis-Iglesiente Mountains, one of the most ancient geological formations in the island.-Geology:The Sulcis...
and the Monte Linas (1236 metres) in the southwest and in Oristano (Monte Arci, 1.700 m). The island's ranges and plateaux are separated by wide alluvial valleys and flatlands, the main ones being the Campidano
Campidano
Campidano is a plain located in the south-western area of Sardinia, Italy, covering approximately 100 kilometres between Cagliari and Oristano....
in the southwest between Oristano
Oristano
Oristano is a town and comune, capital of the Province of Oristano, on the island of Sardinia, Italy. It has approximately 32,500 inhabitants.Its economy is mainly based on fishing, agriculture and, to a certain extent, tourism.-History:...
and Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
and the Nurra
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...
in the northwest.
Sardinia has few major rivers, the largest being the Tirso, 151 km (93.83 mi) long, which flows into the Sea of Sardinia
Sea of Sardinia
The Sea of Sardinia The Sea of Sardinia The Sea of Sardinia ) is a body of water in the Mediterranean Sea between the spanish archipelago of Balearic Islands and the Italian island of Sardinia....
, the Coghinas
Coghinas
The Coghinas is a river of northern Sardinia, Italy. With a length of 115 km, it is the third longest river of the island behind the Tirso and the Flumendosa.It has a drainage basin of 2551 km²....
(115 km) and the Flumendosa
Flumendosa
The Flumendosa is a river of southern Sardinia, Italy. With a length of , it is the second river of the island behind the Tirso.The Flumendosa's springs are located in the Gennargentu massif, at the feet of the Monte Armidda; it flows into the Tyrrhenian Sea in the area of the towns of Muravera and...
(127 km). There are 54 artificial lakes and dams which supply water and electricity. The main ones are Lake Omodeo
Lake Omodeo
Lake Omodeo is an artificial lake, in central west Sardinia, Italy.The lake was constructed in the 1920's. The dam, designed by the engineer Angelo Omodeo, was inaugurated in 1924, at that time it was the largest reservoir in Europe...
and Lake Coghinas
Lake Coghinas
Lake Coghinas is an artificial lake, in northern Sardinia, Italy, located between the provinces of Sassari and Olbia-Tempio. With a surface of 17.8 km² and a capacity of 254 millions cubic metres of water, it is the second largest lake in the region and one of the major reservoirs in...
. The only natural freshwater lake is Lago di Baratz
Lago di Baratz
Lago di Baratz is a lake in the Province of Sassari, Sardinia, Italy. At an elevation of 24 m, its surface area is 0.6 km². It is the only natural freshwater lake in Sardinia.It's located inside the Municipality of Sassari, near Alghero....
. A number of large, shallow, salt-water lagoons and pools are located along the 1850 km (1,149.54 mi) of the coastline.
The island has a typical Mediterranean climate
Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...
. During the year there are approximately 300 days of sunshine, with 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 11 to 17 °C (51.8 to 62.6 F).
The Mistral
Mistral (wind)
The mistral is a strong, cold and usually dry regional wind in France, coming from the north or northwest, which accelerates when it passes through the valleys of the Rhone and the Durance Rivers to the coast of the Mediterranean around the Camargue region. It affects the northeast of the plain...
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 and makes for a sailor's paradise.
Prehistory
Sardinia is one of the most geologically ancient bodies of land in EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Though evidence of human visits date from the Palaeolithic period, permanent settlements only appear much later in the Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
age, around 6000 BC.
Etruria
Etruria—usually referred to in Greek and Latin source texts as Tyrrhenia—was a region of Central Italy, an area that covered part of what now are Tuscany, Latium, Emilia-Romagna, and Umbria. A particularly noteworthy work dealing with Etruscan locations is D. H...
(present-day Tuscany), while those who populated the central region of the island around the salt lakes of Cabras and St Giusta may have arrived from the Iberian Peninsula
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
by way of the Balearic Islands
Balearic Islands
The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.The four largest islands are: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain with Palma as the capital...
. The settlements founded around the Gulf of Cagliari seem to be of various origins.
Evidence of trade with Aegean
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
(Eastern Mediterranean) centres is present in the period 1600 BC onwards; for example fine ceramic products from Cydonia have been recovered in Sardinia. As time passed, the different Sardinian peoples appear to have became united in language and customs, yet remained divided politically as various small, tribal groupings, at times banding together, and at others waging war against each other. Habitations consisted of round thatched stone huts, similar to those of present-day shepherds.
Nuraghe
The nuraghe is the main type of ancient megalithic edifice found in Sardinia. Today it has come to be the symbol of Sardinia and its distinctive culture, the Nuragic civilization...
and nuraxi respectively), which were often reinforced and enlarged with battlements. The boundaries of tribal territories were guarded by smaller lookout nuraghi erected on strategic hills commanding a view of other territories. Today some 7,000 nuraghi dot the Sardinian landscape. According to some scholars the nuragic peoples are identifiable with the Shardana
Shardana
The Sherden are one of several groups of "Sea Peoples" who appear in fragmentary historical records for the Mediterranean region in the second millennium B.C.; little is known about them. On reliefs they are shown carrying a round shield and a long thrusting Naue II type sword...
, a tribe of the "Sea Peoples
Sea Peoples
The Sea Peoples were a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty and especially during year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty...
".
Ancient history
Circa 1000 BC the PhoeniciaPhoenicia
Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...
ns began visiting Sardinia with increasing frequency, presumably initially needing safe over-night and/or 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, including Britain . The most common ports of call were Caralis, Nora
Nora, Italy
thumb|250px|The Punic Quarter in the archaeological site of Nora.Nora is an ancient Roman and pre-Roman town placed on a peninsula near Pula, near to Cagliari in Sardinia. According with the legend, Nora was founded by a group of Iberians led by Norax, a mythological hero son of Eriteide and the...
, Bithia, Sulcis
Sulcis
Sulcis is the southwestern region of Sardinia, part of the larger Sulcis-Iglesiente region. It is named for the Phoenician city of Sulcis , present-day Sant'Antioco....
, Tharros
Tharros
Tharros was an ancient city on the west coast of Sardinia, Italy, and is currently an archaeological site near the village of San Giovanni di Sinis, municipality of Cabras, in the Province of Oristano...
, Bosa and Olbia
Olbia
Olbia is a town and comune of 56,231 inhabitants in northeastern Sardinia , in the Gallura sub-region. Called Olbia in the Roman age, Civita in the Middle Ages and Terranova Pausania before the 1940s, Olbia was again the official name of the town after the period of Fascism.-Geography:It is the...
. These soon became important colonies, inhabited by Phoenicia
Phoenicia
Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...
n traders and their families who traded overseas and with the Sardinians .
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
for help. For 271 years, the Carthaginian or Punic civilizations flourished alongside each other.
In 238 BC the Carthaginians, as a result of their defeat by the Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
in the first Punic War, surrendered Sardinia to Rome. Sardinia became a Roman province, and the existing coastal cities were enlarged and embellished, while Coloniae
Colonia (Roman)
A Roman colonia was originally a Roman outpost established in conquered territory to secure it. Eventually, however, the term came to denote the highest status of Roman city.-History:...
such as Turris Lybissonis
Porto Torres
Porto Torres is a comune and city in northern Sardinia, in the Province of Sassari.It is situated on the north coast about 25 km east of the Gorditanian promontory , and on the spacious bay of the Gulf of Asinara.-History:...
and Feronia were founded. These were populated by Roman immigrants. The Roman military occupation brought the Nuragic civilization to an end. Roman domination of Sardinia lasted 694 years. Sardinia provided grain to the city of Rome. However, it was often opposed by the Sardinians in the mountainous regions, even though even here the Latin language came to dominate, though not Latin civilization.
Vandal interlude
The VandalsVandals
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....
led by King Geiseric had migrated to coastal Numidia
Numidia
Numidia was an ancient Berber kingdom in part of present-day Eastern Algeria and Western Tunisia in North Africa. It is known today as the Chawi-land, the land of the Chawi people , the direct descendants of the historical Numidians or the Massyles The kingdom began as a sovereign state and later...
(modern Morocco and Algeria) from Spain in AD 429 at the invitation of the Roman governor of North Africa Count Boniface
Bonifacius
Comes Bonifacius was a Roman general and governor of the Diocese of Africa. Along with his rival, Flavius Aëtius, he is sometimes termed "the last of the Romans."...
. The Vandals were seeking safe haven from military pressure by the Romans from Gaul
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
(modern France, Belgium and North Italy). Boniface was seeking to shore up his military position in the succession struggle following the death of Western Emperor Honorius
Honorius
Honorius may refer to:* Honorius , western Roman emperor 395–423* Honorius of Canterbury , archbishop of Canterbury 627–653* Honoratus of Amiens , bishop of Amiens...
. In AD 439, the Vandals
Vandals
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....
revolted and seized Carthage and Africa (modern Tunisa, and Libya). The new Vandal Kingdom of North Africa
Vandals
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....
achieved peace with the Romans on favorable terms in AD 442, but in AD 455 another Roman coup d'état killed Emperor Valentinian III
Valentinian III
-Family:Valentinian was born in the western capital of Ravenna, the only son of Galla Placidia and Flavius Constantius. The former was the younger half-sister of the western emperor Honorius, and the latter was at the time Patrician and the power behind the throne....
whose daughter had been promised to Geiseric's son. Geiseric, led his powerful fleet to sack Rome
Sack of Rome (455)
The sack of 455 was the second of three barbarian sacks of Rome; it was executed by the Vandals, who were then at war with the usurping Western Roman Emperor Petronius Maximus....
, along the way occupying Caralis and other key coastal cities of Sardinia and claiming the island for his kingdom.
Vandal rule lasted for 77 or 88 years of which there is little detail in the historical record. 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
Praeses , is a Latin word meaning "Seated in front of, i.e. at the head ", has both ancient and modern uses.-Roman imperial use:...
and apparently continued to manage military, judicial, and civil governmental functions via imperial procedures. (This continuity was not novel to Sardinia; like the Visigoths, the Vandals generally maintained the pretense of the empire, nominally acknowledging Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
and declaring themselves its deputies.) The only Vandal governor of Sardinia about whom there is substantial record is the last, Goddas
Goddas
Goddas or Godas was a Gothic nobleman of the Vandal kingdom in Africa. King Gelimer of the Vandals made him governor of the Vandalic province of Sardinia, but Goddas stopped forwarding the taxes he collected and declared himself ruler of Sardinia.In 533, he began communicating with Justinian I,...
, a Visigoth
Visigoth
The Visigoths were one of two main branches of the Goths, the Ostrogoths being the other. These tribes were among the Germans who spread through the late Roman Empire during the Migration Period...
noble. In AD 530 a coup d'état in Carthage removed King Hilderic
Hilderic
Hilderic was the penultimate king of the Vandals and Alans in North Africa in Late Antiquity . Although dead by the time the Vandal kingdom was overthrown in 534, he nevertheless played a key role in that event....
, a convert to Roman Catholicism, in favor of his cousin Gelimer
Gelimer
Gelimer , King of the Vandals and Alans , was the last ruler of the North African Kingdom of the Vandals...
, an Arian
Arian
Arian may refer to:* Arius, a Christian presbyter in the 3rd and 4th century* a given name in different cultures: Aria, Aryan or Arian...
Christian like most of his kingdom. Goddas was sent to take charge and ensure the loyalty of Roman Catholic Sardinia. He did the exact opposite, declaring the island's independence from Carthage and opening negotiations with Emperor Justinian I
Justinian I
Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
, who had declared war on Hilderic's behalf. In AD 533 Gelimer sent the bulk of his army to Sardinia to subdue Goddas, with the catastrophic result that the Vandal Kingdom was overwhelmed when Justinian's own army under Belisarius
Belisarius
Flavius Belisarius was a general of the Byzantine Empire. He was instrumental to Emperor Justinian's ambitious project of reconquering much of the Mediterranean territory of the former Western Roman Empire, which had been lost less than a century previously....
arrived in their absence. The Vandal Kingdom conquered, Sardinia was returned to Byzantine rule.
Byzantine Period
In AD 533 Sardinia returned to the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire or the Byzantine EmpireByzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
when the Vandals were defeated by the armies of Justinian I
Justinian I
Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
under the General Belisarius
Belisarius
Flavius Belisarius was a general of the Byzantine Empire. He was instrumental to Emperor Justinian's ambitious project of reconquering much of the Mediterranean territory of the former Western Roman Empire, which had been lost less than a century previously....
in the Battle of Tricamarum. This Roman victory over the Vandals in North Africa returned Sardinia to the Roman fold for the next 300 years.
Under Byzantine rule, the island was divided into districts called merèie, which were governed by a judge residing in Caralis (Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
) and garrisoned by an army stationed in Forum Traiani today known as Fordongianus
Fordongianus
Fordongianus is a comune in the Province of Oristano in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 90 km northwest of Cagliari and about 25 km northeast of Oristano...
under the command of a dux. The Byzantines practiced Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and converted the largely pagan population of early medieval Sardinia. Along with lay Christianity, the followers of monastic figures such as St. Basil became established in Sardinia. While Christianity penetrated the majority of the population, the region of Barbagia
Barbagia
Barbagia is a mountain area of inner Sardinia. It is mostly comprised in the province of Nuoro and located alongside the Gennargentu massif....
remained largely pagan. In Barbagia towards the end of the 6th century, a short-lived independent principality established itself, returning to the local traditional religions. One of its Princes, the last pagan Prince, was Ospitone, who conducted raids upon the neighboring Christian communities controlled by the Byzantine Dux Zabarda. He was later reprimanded by Pope Gregory I
Pope Gregory I
Pope Gregory I , better known in English as Gregory the Great, was pope from 3 September 590 until his death...
within a letter for "Dum enim Barbaricini omnes ut insensata animalia vivant, deum verum nesciant, ligna autem et lapides adorent(living, all like irrational animals, ignorant of the true God and worshiping wood and stone)." In AD 594. Ospitone was then convinced by Gregory the Great, and likely the circumstances of his conflict with Zabarda, to convert to Christianity after receiving the papal letter. His followers, however, were not immediately convinced and ostracized their prince for a short time before they themselves converted.
Exactly when and how Byzantine rule ended in Sardinia is not known. Direct central control was maintained at least through circa AD 650, after which local legates were empowered in the face of the rebellion of Gregory the Patrician
Gregory the Patrician
Gregory the Patrician was a Byzantine governor, and self-proclaimed Emperor of the province of Africa.-Career:Gregory the Patrician was related by blood to the Imperial House of Heraclius, through the Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II's cousin Nicetas. Gregory was appointed Exarch of Africa by the...
, Exarch of Africa
Exarchate of Africa
The Exarchate of Africa or of Carthage, after its capital, was the name of an administrative division of the Eastern Roman Empire encompassing its possessions on the Western Mediterranean, ruled by an exarch, or viceroy...
and the First Invasion of the Umayyad conquest of North Africa
Umayyad conquest of North Africa
The Umayyad conquest of North Africa continued the century of rapid Arab Muslim expansion following the death of Muhammad in 632 CE. By 640 the Arabs controlled Mesopotamia, had invaded Armenia, and were concluding their conquest of Byzantine Syria. Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad caliphate....
. There is some evidence that senior Byzantine administration in the Exarchate of Africa
Exarchate of Africa
The Exarchate of Africa or of Carthage, after its capital, was the name of an administrative division of the Eastern Roman Empire encompassing its possessions on the Western Mediterranean, ruled by an exarch, or viceroy...
retreated to Cagliari following the final fall of Carthage
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
to the Arabs in AD 697. The loss of imperial control in Africa led to escalating Moorish and Berber
Berber people
Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...
raids on the island, the first of which is document in AD 705, forcing increased military self-reliance in the province. Communication with the central government became daunting if not impossible during and after the Muslim conquest of Sicily of AD 827 and AD 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 (reigned AD 872 – AD 882) refers to them as principes ("princes"). By the time of ‘’De Administrando Imperio
De Administrando Imperio
De Administrando Imperio is the Latin title of a Greek work written by the 10th-century Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VII. The Greek title of the work is...
’’, completed in 952, the Byzantine authorities no longer listed Sardinia as an imperial province, suggesting they considered it lost.
Whether this final transformation from imperial civil servant to independent sovereign resulted from imperial abandonment or local assertion, by the tenth century, the ‘’Giudici’’ (Latin iudiices, literally meaning "judges," a Byzantine administrative title) )had emerged as the autonomous rulers of Sardinia. The title of iudice changed with the language and local understanding of the position, becoming the Sardinian giudice, essentially sovereign, while giudicato
Giudicati
The giudicati were the indigenous kingdoms of Sardinia from about 900 until 1410, when the last fell to the Aragonese. The rulers of the giudicati were giudici , from the Latin iudice , often translates as "judge". The Latin for giudicato was iudicatus The giudicati (singular giudicato) were the...
, literally judgeship, came to mean both "state" and "palace" or "capital."
Middle Age history
The new political system that followed the de facto end of Byzantine showed a significant inheritance from the millennium of imperial structure. The Sardinians called their leaders GiudiciGiudicati
The giudicati were the indigenous kingdoms of Sardinia from about 900 until 1410, when the last fell to the Aragonese. The rulers of the giudicati were giudici , from the Latin iudice , often translates as "judge". The Latin for giudicato was iudicatus The giudicati (singular giudicato) were the...
, derived from the Byzantine magistrate title of iuidici (judici, literally “judge,” or “magistrate”), though they were the equivalent of the equally new sovereign titles “duke,” and “king.” Although the Giudicati were hereditary lordships, the old Roman/Byzantine imperial notion that separated personal title or honor from the state still obtained, so the Giudicato (“judgeship,” essentially, a kingdom) was not regarded as the personal property of the monarch as was common in later European feudalism
Feudalism
Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...
. Like the imperial systems, the new order also preserved Republican forms, with national assemblies called corona de logu, although its powers and importance are not well understood by historians. Each Giudicato saw to its own defense, maintained its own laws and administration, and looked after its own foreign and trading affairs.
In the 10th century there were five known Giudicati on Sardinia, but, the annexation of the Giudicato of Agugliastra
Giudicato of Agugliastra
The Giudicato of Agugliastra or Ogliastra was a small and short-lived giudicato in Sardinia probably in the tenth and eleventh centuries. It lay south of Gallura, east of Arborea, and north of Cagliari along the Tyrrhenian Sea on the east of the island. Its capital was Ogliastra.Agugliastra is the...
by the Giudicato of Cagliari
Giudicato of Cagliari
The Giudicato of Cagliari was one of the four Sardinian giudicati of the Middle Ages. It covered the entire south and central east portion of the island and was composed of thirteen subdivisions called curatoriae. To its north and west lay Arborea and north and on the east lay Gallura and Logudoro...
sometime in the 10th or 11th century stabilized the number at four, where it would remain until the Aragonese invasion of the 14th century. The history of the four Giudicati would be defined by the contest for influence between the rival rising sea powers of Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
and Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
, and later the ambitions of the Kingdom of Aragon
Kingdom of Aragon
The Kingdom of Aragon was a medieval and early modern kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding to the modern-day autonomous community of Aragon, in Spain...
.
Giudicato of Cagliari
The Giudicato of Cagliari was one of the four Sardinian giudicati of the Middle Ages. It covered the entire south and central east portion of the island and was composed of thirteen subdivisions called curatoriae. To its north and west lay Arborea and north and on the east lay Gallura and Logudoro...
was allied to the Republic of Genoa
Republic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
. It was brought to an end in 1258 when its capital, St Igia, was stormed and destroyed by an alliance of Sardinian and Pisan forces. The territory then briefly became a colony of Pisa
Republic of Pisa
The Republic of Pisa was a de facto independent state centered on the Tuscan city of Pisa during the late tenth and eleventh centuries. It rose to become an economic powerhouse, a commercial center whose merchants dominated Mediterranean and Italian trade for a century before being surpassed and...
.
The Giudicato of Logudoro (sometimes called Torres) was also allied to the Republic of Genoa
Republic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
and came to an end in 1259 on the death of the judikessa (queen) Adelasia
Adelasia of Torres
Adelasia , eldest child of Marianus II of Logudoro by Agnes of Massa, daughter of William I of Cagliari, and successor of her brother, Barisone III, in 1236, was the Judge of Logudoro from 1236 and Judge of Gallura from 1238....
. The territory was divided up between the Doria
Doria
Doria, originally de Auria , meaning "the sons of Auria", and then de Oria or d'Oria, is the name of an old and extremely wealthy Genoese family who played a major role in the history of the Republic of Genoa and in Italy, from the 12th century to the 16th century.-Origins:According to legend, a...
family of Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
and the Basserra family of Arborea, while the city of Sassari
Sassari
Sassari is an Italian city. It is the second-largest city of Sardinia in terms of population with about 130,000 inhabitants, or about 300,000 including the greater metropolitan area...
became an autonomous city-republic
Medieval commune
Medieval communes in the European Middle Ages had sworn allegiances of mutual defense among the citizens of a town or city. They took many forms, and varied widely in organization and makeup. Communes are first recorded in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, thereafter becoming a widespread...
.
The Giudicato of Gallura
Giudicato of Gallura
The Giudicato of Gallura was one of four Sardinian giudicati of the Middle Ages. These were de facto independent states ruled by judges bearing the title iudex . Gallura, a name which comes from gallus, meaning rooster , was subdivided into ten curatoriae governed by curatores under the judge...
ended in the year 1288, when the last giudice, Nino Visconti
Nino Visconti
Ugolino Visconti , better known as Nino, was the Giudice of Gallura from 1275 or 1276 to his death. He was a son of Giovanni Visconti and nephew of Ugolino della Gherardesca. He was the first husband of Beatrice, daughter of Obizzo II d'Este...
(a friend of Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
), was driven out by the Pisan
Republic of Pisa
The Republic of Pisa was a de facto independent state centered on the Tuscan city of Pisa during the late tenth and eleventh centuries. It rose to become an economic powerhouse, a commercial center whose merchants dominated Mediterranean and Italian trade for a century before being surpassed and...
s, who occupied the territory.
The Giudicato of Arborea had a longer life compared to the other kingdoms. It lasted some 520 years and had Oristano
Oristano
Oristano is a town and comune, capital of the Province of Oristano, on the island of Sardinia, Italy. It has approximately 32,500 inhabitants.Its economy is mainly based on fishing, agriculture and, to a certain extent, tourism.-History:...
as its capital. The kingdom was called Arborea after its coat of arms, which featured a green uprooted tree on a white field. The history of Arborea is entwined with the history of the Sardinian struggle for independence against Aragon
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...
ese invasion.
The first king of Arborea to actively pursue the plan to unite Sardinia under the rule of Arborea was Barisone the First. He managed to be crowned King of Sardinia by the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
Emperor Frederick "Barbarossa" the First in 1164. However, in order to obtain the title of King of Sardinia, Barisone the First had taken out a loan from the Republic of Genoa
Republic of Genoa
The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....
that he was unable to pay back. For this reason, he was imprisoned by the Republic of Genoa and was detained for 7 years. Barisone never succeeded in uniting Sardinia under his rule because of his financial problems.
In 1297, Pope Boniface VIII established on his own initiative (motu proprio) a hypothetical regnum Sardiniae et Corsicae ("Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica
Kingdom of Sardinia
The Kingdom of Sardinia consisted of the island of Sardinia first as a part of the Crown of Aragon and subsequently the Spanish Empire , and second as a part of the composite state of the House of Savoy . Its capital was originally Cagliari, in the south of the island, and later Turin, on the...
") in order to settle the War of the Vespers diplomatically. This had broken out in 1282 between the Angevins
Capetian House of Anjou
The Capetian House of Anjou, also known as the House of Anjou-Sicily and House of Anjou-Naples, was a royal house and cadet branch of the direct House of Capet. Founded by Charles I of Sicily, a son of Louis VIII of France, the Capetian king first ruled the Kingdom of Sicily during the 13th century...
and Aragonese
Aragonese people
The Aragonese are an ethnic group or nation living in the historical region of Aragon, between the centre and the north-east of Spain. Their native Aragonese language, which might have been spoken in the whole of the Kingdom of Aragon in the Middle Ages, is nowadays a seriously endangered language,...
over the possession of Sicily. The Pope offered this newly created crown to James II, the King of Aragon, promising him support should he wish to conquer Pisan Sardinia in exchange for Sicily.
In 1323 the king of Arborea formed an alliance with James II of Aragon against the Pisans, despite being aware of the Aragonese plans to take control of Sardinia, because they saw the Pisans as a bigger threat. It is also important to remember that the kings of Arborea descended in part from an Aragonese family. The Aragonese flag appeared on the Arborean coat of arms and flags along with the uprooted tree until the later conflict between Arborea and Aragon escalated. Following a military campaign which lasted a year or so, the Aragonese occupied the Pisan territories of Cagliari and Gallura along with the city of Sassari, naming them "The Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica". However, soon the king of Arborea started to wage war against the Aragonese, having his own plans to unite Sardinia as one independent kingdom.
When the other Giudicati had been taken over by foreign powers, the kings of Arborea started to see themselves as the legitimate defenders of Sardinian rule and Sardinian interests. They not only waged war against the Kings of Aragon, who were trying to conquer all of Sardinia, they also formalised the legal and political institutions that were the basis of their statehood and independence, such as by promulgating the legal code of the kingdom in the Carta de Logu
Carta de Logu
The Carta de Logu was legal code of the Giudicato of Arborea promulgated by the giudicessa Eleanor in 1392. It was in force in Sardinia until it was superseded by the code of Charles Felix in April 1827....
(Charter of the Land). The Carta de Logu was originally compiled by Mariano IV of Arborea, and was amended and updated by Mariano's daughter, Queen Eleanor of Arborea
Eleanor of Arborea
Eleanor ; 1347 – 1404) was the giudicessa of Arborea from 1383 to her death. She was one of the last — and most powerful and significant — Sardinian judges; as well as the island's most renowned heroine....
. 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 the Carta de Logu it is clear that the kings and queens of Arborea saw themselves as the legitimate rulers of Sardinia: they stated very clearly that the Carta de Logu applied to the whole of Sardinia, not just to their dominions, and that it had been established to guarantee the well-being and development of the Sardinian state and its people.
In 1353 Peter IV of Aragon
Peter IV of Aragon
Peter IV, , called el Cerimoniós or el del punyalet , was the King of Aragon, King of Sardinia and Corsica , King of Valencia , and Count of Barcelona Peter IV, (Balaguer, September 5, 1319 – Barcelona, January 6, 1387), called el Cerimoniós ("the Ceremonious") or el del punyalet ("the one...
, following Aragonese custom, granted a parliament to the kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica, which was followed in due course by some degree of self-government under a viceroy and judicial independence. This parliament, however, had some very 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 ruled by it.
The Sardinian kingdoms never adopted feudalism, and the Kingdom of Arborea maintained its parliament called the "Corona de Logu". 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 killed if he did not follow the rules of the kingdom.
From 1365 to 1409 the Arborean giudici Mariano IV, Ugone III, Mariano V (assisted by his mother Eleonora, the famous giudicessa regent), and Guglielmo III (the French grandson of Eleonora) succeeded in occupying all of Sardinia except the heavily fortified towns of the Castle of Cagliari (today simply Cagliari) and Alghero
Alghero
Alghero , is a town of about 44,000 inhabitants in Italy. It lies in the province of Sassari in northwestern Sardinia, next to the sea.-History:The area of today's Alghero has been settled since pre-historic times...
, which for years were the only Aragonese dominions in Sardinia. The Giudicato of Arborea and its monarchs received a great deal of support from many Sardinians of all classes, partly because many Sardinians were strongly against the feudal system that the Kingdom of Aragon
Kingdom of Aragon
The Kingdom of Aragon was a medieval and early modern kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding to the modern-day autonomous community of Aragon, in Spain...
introduced in its domains.
In 1409 Martin I of Sicily
Martin I of Sicily
Martin I of Sicily , called "The Younger", was King of Sicily from 1390 to 1409.Martin's father was the future King Martin I of Aragon, and his grandparents were King Peter IV of Aragon and Eleanor of Sicily. In 1389/1390/February, 1392 he married Maria of Sicily, born in 1362/1363...
, king of Sicily and heir to the crown of Aragon, defeated the Sardinians at the Battle of Sanluri
Battle of Sanluri
The Battle of Sanluri was fought on June 30, 1409 between the armies of the Giudicato of Arborea and the Catalan-Sicilian army of King Martin I of Sicily....
(Sa battalla de Seddori in Sardinian). The battle was fought by about 20,000 Sardinians, who had taken up arms voluntarily at a time when the population of Sardinia had been greatly depleted by the plague (and therefore 20,000 Sardinians represented a very considerable number). Despite the Sardinian army outnumbering the Aragonese army, they were defeated. It is estimated that about 5,000 Sardinians were killed in the battle. A field near Sanluri is still known to this day as S'Occidroxiu ("the massacre place").
The kingdom of Arborea finally surrendered only 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 King of Aragon.
The successes of the Kingdom of Aragon were marred by the death of the heir to the Aragon crown, Martin I of Sicily, who died in Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
(where he is buried) of malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
contracted during the military campaign against the Kingdom of Arborea. Consequently the Crown of Aragon passed to a different dynasty, the Trastàmaras, to Ferdinand I of Aragon
Ferdinand I of Aragon
Ferdinand I called of Antequera and also the Just or the Honest) was king of Aragon, Valencia, Majorca, Sardinia and Corsica and king of Sicily, duke of Athens and Neopatria, and count of Barcelona, Roussillon and Cerdanya...
and his descendants through the Compromise of Caspe
Compromise of Caspe
The Compromise of Caspe made in 1412 was an act and resolution of parliamentary representatives on behalf of the Kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia and the County of Barcelona, to resolve the interregnum commenced by the death of King Martin I of Aragon in 1410 without a legitimate heir, in Caspe.The...
in 1412.
The conquest of Sardinia by the Kingdom of Aragon
Kingdom of Aragon
The Kingdom of Aragon was a medieval and early modern kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding to the modern-day autonomous community of Aragon, in Spain...
and the consequent loss of independence also 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 Medieval to the Modern Era, at a time when feudalism had already been abandoned by many other European countries.
Modern history
In 1479, as a result of the marriage of Ferdinand II of AragonFerdinand II of Aragon
Ferdinand the Catholic was King of Aragon , Sicily , Naples , Valencia, Sardinia, and Navarre, Count of Barcelona, jure uxoris King of Castile and then regent of that country also from 1508 to his death, in the name of...
and Isabel of Castile, the "Kingdom of Sardinia
Kingdom of Sardinia
The Kingdom of Sardinia consisted of the island of Sardinia first as a part of the Crown of Aragon and subsequently the Spanish Empire , and second as a part of the composite state of the House of Savoy . Its capital was originally Cagliari, in the south of the island, and later Turin, on the...
" (which was separated from Corsica) became Spanish, with the state symbol of the Four Moors
Maure
A Maure, since the 11th century, is the symbol of an African head. The term has Phoenician and Greek origins; see Moors.- U Moru :The main symbol in the coat of arms in Corsica is U Moru, Corsican for "The Moor", originally a female Moor blindfolded and wearing a necklace made of beads...
. Following the failure of the military ventures against the Muslims of Tunis (1535) and Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
(1541), Charles V of Spain, in order to defend his Mediterranean territories from pirate raids by the African Berbers
Berber people
Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...
, fortified the Sardinian shores with a system of coastal lookout towers.
Many famines have been reported in Sardinia. According to Stephen L. Dyson and Robert J. Rowland, "The Jesuits of Cagliari recorded years during the late 1500s "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
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...
of 1680, some 80,000 persons, out of a total
population of 250,000, are said to have died, and entire villages were devastated..."
In 1708, as a consequence of the Spanish War of Succession, the rule of the Kingdom of Sardinia passed into the hands of the Austrians who occupied the island. In 1717 Cardinal Giulio Alberoni
Giulio Alberoni
Giulio Alberoni was an Italian cardinal andstatesman 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....
, minister of Philip V of Spain
Philip V of Spain
Philip V was King of Spain from 15 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to his death.Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a...
, reoccupied Sardinia. In 1718, with the Treaty of London, Sardinia was handed over to the House of Savoy
House of Savoy
The House of Savoy was formed in the early 11th century in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, it grew from ruling a small county in that region to eventually rule the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 until the end of World War II, king of Croatia and King of Armenia...
.
On 28 April 1794, during an uprising in Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
, two Piedmontese officials were killed. That was the start of a revolt (called the "Moti rivoluzionari sardi") all over the island, which culminated in the expulsion of the tyrants. On 28 December 1795 in Sassari
Sassari
Sassari is an Italian city. It is the second-largest city of Sardinia in terms of population with about 130,000 inhabitants, or about 300,000 including the greater metropolitan area...
insurgents demonstrating against feudalism, mainly from the region of Logudoro
Logudoro
The Logudoro is a large traditional region in central-northern Sardinia, Italy. The local dialect is known as Logudorese.Mostly composed of soft volcanic terrains, it is the most fertile area of the island. For this reason it was settled since early Prehistoric times, as shown by the presence of...
, occupied the city. On 13 February 1796, in order to suppress a riot, the viceroy Filippo Vivalda gave to the Sardinian magistrate Giovanni Maria Angioy
Giovanni Maria Angioy
Giovanni Maria Angioy was a Sardinian politician and patriot and to this day he is considered a national hero in Sardinia....
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 the independence
Independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....
of Sardinia's people.
In 1799, as a consequence of the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
in Italy, the Dukes of Savoy left Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
and took refuge in Cagliari for some fifteen years. In 1847 the Sardinian parliaments (Stamenti) spontaneously renounced their state autonomy and formed a union with Piedmont in order to have a single parliament, a single magistracy and a single government in Turin.
In 1848 the Italian Wars of Independence broke out for the Unification of Italy and were led by the kings of Sardinia for thirteen years. In 1861 Sardinia joined the newly founded Kingdom of Italy.
During the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
the Sardinian soldiers of the Brigata Sassari
Sassari Mechanized Brigade
* "Sassari" Combat Service Support Battalion in Sassari* 3rd Bersaglieri Regiment in Teulada* 151st Mechanized Infantry Regiment "Sassari" in Cagliari* 152nd Mechanized Infantry Regiment "Sassari" in Sassari* 5th Engineer Regiment in Macomer...
distinguished themselves, several being decorated with gold medals and other honours. It was the first and only Italian military unit constituted exclusively from Sardinian soldiers.
The Sardinian writer Grazia Deledda
Grazia Deledda
Grazia Deledda was an Italian writer whose works won her the Nobel Prize for Literature for 1926.-Biography:...
won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926.
During the Fascist
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
period, and implementation of the policy of autarky
Autarky
Autarky is the quality of being self-sufficient. Usually the term is applied to political states or their economic policies. Autarky exists whenever an entity can survive or continue its activities without external assistance. Autarky is not necessarily economic. For example, a military autarky...
, several swamps were reclaimed around the island and agrarian communities founded. The main communities were in the area of Oristano, where the village of Mussolinia (now called Arborea
Arborea
Arborea is a town and comune in the province of Oristano, Sardinia, Italy, whose economy is largely based on agriculture, with production of vegetables and fruit.- History :...
) was located, and in the area adjacent the city of Alghero
Alghero
Alghero , is a town of about 44,000 inhabitants in Italy. It lies in the province of Sassari in northwestern Sardinia, next to the sea.-History:The area of today's Alghero has been settled since pre-historic times...
, within the region of Nurra
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...
, Fertilia
Fertilia
Fertilia [fer-tì-lia] is a village on the municipality of Alghero in the province of Sassari, Sardinia, Italy.-History:Fertilia was built by the Fascist government of Italy in the 1930s, after the draining of the marshes which covered the area....
was founded. Also established during that time was the city of Carbonia, which became the main centre of mining activity. Works to dry the numerous waste lands and the reprise of mining activities favored the arrival of settlers and immigrants, at first from Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
, and after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Istrian Italians
Istrian Italians
Istrian Italians are the ethnic group in the northern Adriatic region of Istria, related to the Italian people of Italy. Historically they are descendants from the original Latinized population of Roman Istria, from the Venetian-speaking settlers who came to Istria during the Republic of Venice,...
and Dalmatian Italians
Dalmatian Italians
Dalmatian Italians are a mostly historical Italian national minority in the region of Dalmatia, part of the Republics of Croatia and Montenegro.-Characteristics:...
from territories lost to Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
.
The oppression by the fascist regime of its opponents within the region was ruthless. Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci
Antonio Gramsci was an Italian writer, politician, political philosopher, and linguist. He was a founding member and onetime leader of the Communist Party of Italy and was imprisoned by Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime...
, one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
, was arrested and died in prison. Michele Schirru was executed on May 29, 1931, after a failed assassination plot against Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
.
Post World War II Period
In 1946 by popular referendum Italy became a republic, with Sardinia administered since 1948 by special statute of autonomy. By 1951, malariaMalaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
was successfully eliminated with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
, which facilitated the commencement of the Sardinian tourist boom, mainly focused on beach holidays and elite tourism. Today about ten million people visit the island every year.
With the increase in tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
, coal decreased in importance. In the 1950s and 1960s the greatest Sardinian migration
Human migration
Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic...
began. However, in the early 1960s an industrialization 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
Petrochemical
Petrochemicals are chemical products derived from petroleum. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sources such as corn or sugar cane....
industries, thousands of ex-farmers became industrial workers. Nevertheless, the 1973 oil crisis
1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis started in October 1973, when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries or the OAPEC proclaimed an oil embargo. This was "in response to the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military" during the Yom Kippur war. It lasted until March 1974. With the...
caused the termination of employment for thousands of workers employed in the petrochemical industries.
The economic crisis, unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
, and the establishment of military base
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. In general, a military base provides accommodations for one or more units, but it may also be used as a...
s in the island (70% of Italian military bases were located in Sardinia) aggravated the crime rate, with increasing kidnappings and political subversion. Communist groups flourished, the most famous being Barbagia Rossa, which perpetrated several terrorist actions between the 1970s and the early 1980s.
In 1983 a militant of an autonomist-indipendentist party, the Sardinian Action Party
Sardinian Action Party
The Sardinian Action Party is a regionalist social-democratic political party in Sardinia, which has recently sided with The People of Freedom, the largest centre-right party in Italy.-History:...
(Partito Sardo d'Azione), was elected president of the regional parliament, and in the 1980s several indipendentist
Separatism
Separatism is the advocacy of a state of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. While it often refers to full political secession, separatist groups may seek nothing more than greater autonomy...
movements were born; in the 1990s some of them became political parties, and in 2006 in the Province of Sassari the first separatist militant was elected. In 1999 the local languages (Sardinian
Sardinian language
Sardinian is a Romance language spoken and written on most of the island of Sardinia . It is considered the most conservative of the Romance languages in terms of phonology and is noted for its Paleosardinian substratum....
, Sassarese, Gallurese
Gallurese
Gallurese is a Italo-Dalmatian Romance language spoken in the northeastern part of Sardinia. It is often considered as a variety of Corsican, or a transitional language between Corsican and Sardinian....
, Algherese and Tabarchino) received official status together with Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
.
Today Sardinia is phasing in as an EU
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
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
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
. For example, the CRS4
CRS4
CRS4, also known as Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia , is an interdisciplinary research center, founded by the Sardinia Autonomous Region on November 30, 1990. Since 2003, the center is located in the Technology Park of Sardinia, in the commune of Pula...
(Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia) developed the first Italian website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
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
Tiscali may refer to:*Tiscali, an archaeological village of Nuragici people, in Sardinia, Italy, notable because it was completely inside a huge cavern*Tiscali SpA, a telecom company based in Italy*Tiscali TV , multiple uses...
in 1998 and Andala Umts in 1999.
A G8
G8
The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for the governments of seven major economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1997, the group added Russia, thus becoming the G8...
summit was planned to be held in Sardinia, on the island of La Maddalena
La Maddalena
La Maddalena is a town and comune located on the island with the same name, in northern Sardinia, part of the province of Olbia-Tempio, Italy.-The town:...
, in July 2009. However in April 2009, the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
, decided, without convoking the Italian parliament or consulting the governor of Sardinia, to move the summit, even though the works were almost completed, to L'Aquila
L'Aquila
L'Aquila is a city and comune in central Italy, both the capital city of the Abruzzo region and of the Province of L'Aquila. , it has a population of 73,150 inhabitants, but has a daily presence in the territory of 100,000 people for study, tertiary activities, jobs and tourism...
, provoking protests among Sardinians that the autonomous status of Sardinia had been violated.
Economy
Taken as a whole, Sardinia's economic conditions are such that the island is in the best position among Italian regions located south of Rome. The greatest economic development has taken place inland, in the provinces of CagliariCagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
and Sassari
Sassari
Sassari is an Italian city. It is the second-largest city of Sardinia in terms of population with about 130,000 inhabitants, or about 300,000 including the greater metropolitan area...
, characterized by a certain amount of enterprise. According to Eurostat
Eurostat
Eurostat is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in Luxembourg. Its main responsibilities are to provide the European Union with statistical information at European level and to promote the integration of statistical methods across the Member States of the European Union,...
, the 2007 GDP
Gross domestic product
Gross domestic product refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita is often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living....
was €33,823.2 million, resulting in a €20,627 GDP per capita
Gross domestic product
Gross domestic product refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita is often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living....
, in 2009.
The Sardinian economy is penalized due to high costs of transportation of goods and electricity, which is double compared to the continental Italian regions, and triple compared to the EU average. Sardinia is the only Italian region that produces a surplus of electricity, which supply power to the region, and does not import power from abroad, whereas the problem the region had encountered was insufficient transmission links as it is an island situated over 100 km from the mainland. In 2009 the new submarine power cable
Submarine power cable
Submarine power cables are major transmission cables for carrying electric power below the surface of the water. These are called "submarine" because they usually carry electric power beneath salt water but it is also possible to use submarine power cables beneath fresh water...
Sapei
Sapei
SAPEI, is a high-voltage direct current power transmission system that connects Sardinia with the Italian mainland. The submarine cable from Fiume Santo to Latina runs at below sea level in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the deepest submarine cable in the world. The cable is owned and operated by...
entered into operation, it links the Fiume Santo Power Station, in Sardinia, to the converter stations in Latina, in the Italian peninsula, the SACOI is another submarine power cable
Submarine power cable
Submarine power cables are major transmission cables for carrying electric power below the surface of the water. These are called "submarine" because they usually carry electric power beneath salt water but it is also possible to use submarine power cables beneath fresh water...
that links Sardinia to Italy, crossing Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
, from 1965.
The under construction submarine gas pipeline GALSI
GALSI
GALSI is a planned natural gas pipeline from Algeria to Sardinia and further northern Italy.-History:The feasibility study was completed in 2005...
, will link Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
to Sardinia and further Italy, in 2012.
The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
in Sardinia is the highest of Southern Italy, with 16,540 euros per person.
The unemployment rate for the fourth quarter of 2008 was 8.6%, by the first quarter of 2010 the unemployment rate increased to 16.1%. The rise in unemployment was due to the global financial crisis that hit Sardinian exports, mainly focused on refined oil and chemical products.
(Million €)|| 25,958.1 || 27,547.6 || 28,151.6 || 29,487.3 || 30,595.5 || 31,421.3 || 32,579.0 || 33,823.2
|-
| align=left | GDP per capita nominal
(Euro) || 15,861.0 || 16,871.4 || 17,226.5 || 17,975.7 || 18,581.0 || 19,009.8 || 19,654.3 || 20,444.1
|}
The primary sector is still of outstanding importance, especially goat and sheep rearing (good production of cheese). Agriculture has been modernized on the Campidano
Campidano
Campidano is a plain located in the south-western area of Sardinia, Italy, covering approximately 100 kilometres between Cagliari and Oristano....
plain (vegetables, citrus, rice), and Sardinian wines are famous. There is little fishing (and no real maritime tradition), but the once prosperous mining industry is still active though restricted to coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
(Carbonia, Bacu Abis), antimony
Antimony
Antimony is a toxic chemical element with the symbol Sb and an atomic number of 51. A lustrous grey metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite...
(Villasalto
Villasalto
Villasalto is a comune in the Province of Cagliari in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 40 km northeast of Cagliari. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 1,282 and an area of 130.1 km²....
), gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
(Furtei
Furtei
Furtei is a comune in the Province of Medio Campidano in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 40 km northwest of Cagliari and about 4 km east of Sanluri...
), bauxite
Bauxite
Bauxite is an aluminium ore and is the main source of aluminium. This form of rock consists mostly of the minerals gibbsite Al3, boehmite γ-AlO, and diaspore α-AlO, in a mixture with the two iron oxides goethite and hematite, the clay mineral kaolinite, and small amounts of anatase TiO2...
(Olmedo) and lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
and zinc
Zinc
Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
(Iglesiente
Iglesiente
The Iglesiente is a traditional and geographical subdivision of Sardinia, Italy. It encompasses the northern province of Carbonia-Iglesias and the south-western one of the province of Medio Campidano, and its main center is Iglesias....
, Nurra
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...
). The granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
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 cork
Cork (material)
Cork is an impermeable, buoyant material, a prime-subset of bark tissue that is harvested for commercial use primarily from Quercus suber , which is endemic to southwest Europe and northwest Africa...
district, in the northern part of the Gallura
Gallura
Gallura is a region of northern Sardinia, Italy.The name Gallùra means "area located on high ground".-Geography:...
region, around Calangianus
Calangianus
Calangianus is a comune in the Province of Olbia-Tempio in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 190 km north of Cagliari and about 25 km west of Olbia...
and Tempio Pausania
Tempio Pausania
Tempio Pausania is a town c. 14,000 inhabitants in the Gallura region of northern Sardinia, Italy, the administrative capital of the province of Olbia-Tempio.- History :...
, is composed of 130 companies and has become the driver of Sardinian economic development. Every year in Sardinia 200,000 quintals of cork are carved, and 40% of the end products are exported. Fishing along the coasts is also an important activity on the island. Portoscuso
Portoscuso
Portoscuso is a comune in the Province of Carbonia-Iglesias in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 75 km west of Cagliari and about 14 km northwest of Carbonia. The language used here is Italian....
tunas are exported worldwide, but primarily to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
The principal industries are chemicals (Porto Torres
Porto Torres
Porto Torres is a comune and city in northern Sardinia, in the Province of Sassari.It is situated on the north coast about 25 km east of the Gorditanian promontory , and on the spacious bay of the Gulf of Asinara.-History:...
, Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
, Villacidro
Villacidro
Villacidro is a town and comune in the province of Medio Campidano, Sardinia, Italy. From 2005 it is the administrative seat, with Sanluri, of this new province.-Geography:...
, Ottana
Ottana
Ottana is a comune in the Province of Nuoro in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 110 km north of Cagliari and about 25 km southwest of Nuoro.It is home to the Romanesque church of San Nicola....
), petrochemicals (Porto Torres
Porto Torres
Porto Torres is a comune and city in northern Sardinia, in the Province of Sassari.It is situated on the north coast about 25 km east of the Gorditanian promontory , and on the spacious bay of the Gulf of Asinara.-History:...
, Sarroch
Sarroch
Sarroch is a comune in the Province of Cagliari in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 20 km southwest of Cagliari...
), metalworking (Porto Scuso, Porto Vesme, Villacidro
Villacidro
Villacidro is a town and comune in the province of Medio Campidano, Sardinia, Italy. From 2005 it is the administrative seat, with Sanluri, of this new province.-Geography:...
), cement (Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
), pharmaceutical (Sassari
Sassari
Sassari is an Italian city. It is the second-largest city of Sardinia in terms of population with about 130,000 inhabitants, or about 300,000 including the greater metropolitan area...
), shipbuilding (Arbatax
Arbatax
Arbatax is the greatest hamlet of Tortolì, Sardinia, in Italy. With almost 5,000 inhabitants, it is also the third town in its province by population, after Lanusei municipality and Tortolì proper .- History :...
, Olbia
Olbia
Olbia is a town and comune of 56,231 inhabitants in northeastern Sardinia , in the Gallura sub-region. Called Olbia in the Roman age, Civita in the Middle Ages and Terranova Pausania before the 1940s, Olbia was again the official name of the town after the period of Fascism.-Geography:It is the...
, Porto Torres
Porto Torres
Porto Torres is a comune and city in northern Sardinia, in the Province of Sassari.It is situated on the north coast about 25 km east of the Gorditanian promontory , and on the spacious bay of the Gulf of Asinara.-History:...
), oil rig construction (Arbatax
Arbatax
Arbatax is the greatest hamlet of Tortolì, Sardinia, in Italy. With almost 5,000 inhabitants, it is also the third town in its province by population, after Lanusei municipality and Tortolì proper .- History :...
), and food (sugar refineries at Villasor
Villasor
Villasor is a comune in the Province of Cagliari in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 25 km northwest of Cagliari...
and Oristano, dairy at Arborea
Arborea
Arborea is a town and comune in the province of Oristano, Sardinia, Italy, whose economy is largely based on agriculture, with production of vegetables and fruit.- History :...
, Macomer
Macomer
Macomer is a town and comune of Sardinia in the province of Nuoro. It is situated on the southern ascent to the central plateau of this part of Sardinia, at the junction of narrow-gauge lines branching from the main railroad line running east to Nuoro and west to Bosa.The district, especially...
and Thiesi
Thiesi
Thiesi is a town and comune located in the northern province of Sassari, in Sardinia, Italy. It has a population of 3,165....
, fish factory at Olbia). Craft industries include rugs, jewellery, textile, lacework, basket making, and coral.
The Sardinian economy is today focused on the overdeveloped tertiary sector (67.8% of employment), with commerce
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
, services, information technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
, public administration
Public administration
Public Administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. As a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope" its "fundamental goal.....
and especially on tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
, 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).
Airports
Sardinia has three international airports (Alghero Airport, Olbia - Costa Smeralda AirportOlbia - Costa Smeralda Airport
Olbia - Costa Smeralda Airport is an international airport in Olbia, Sardinia .-Airlines and destinations:-External links:*-External links:...
, and Cagliari-Elmas Airport
Cagliari-Elmas Airport
Cagliari-Elmas Airport is an international airport located in the territory of Elmas, near Cagliari, on the island of Sardinia, Italy. The airport was upgraded in 2003 and the terminal was expanded and provided with 6 loading bridges for passenger boarding, with a capacity of 4 millions...
) connected with the principal Italian cities and many European destinations, mainly in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and two regional airports (Oristano-Fenosu Airport
Oristano-Fenosu Airport
Oristano-Fenosu Airport is a small regional airport located in the central western Sardinia, Italy. , next to the town of Oristano. The Airport is entitled at the brave and famous oristanianman Trasvolatori Ernesto Campanelli, is located at about 3 km east of Oristano, in the farming village...
and Tortolì Airport
Tortolì Airport
Tortolì Airport, also known as Tortolì-Arbatax airport is a regional airport, located in the Province of Ogliastra, in central east of Sardinia, Italy...
). Internal air connections between Sardinian airports are limited to a daily Cagliari-Olbia flight, and Tortolì-Olbia flight. Sardinian citizens benefit from special sales on plane tickets, and several low-cost air companies operate on the island. Meridiana Fly
Meridiana
Meridiana fly is an airline with its head office on the grounds of Olbia - Costa Smeralda Airport in Olbia, Sardinia, Italy. It is Italy's second largest airline operating domestic and European services, as well as intercontinental flights. The airline mainly operates out of Cagliari-Elmas Airport,...
is an airline based in the airport of Olbia
Olbia
Olbia is a town and comune of 56,231 inhabitants in northeastern Sardinia , in the Gallura sub-region. Called Olbia in the Roman age, Civita in the Middle Ages and Terranova Pausania before the 1940s, Olbia was again the official name of the town after the period of Fascism.-Geography:It is the...
; it was founded as Alisarda
Alisarda
Alisarda was an Italian airline based in Olbia, Sardinia.-Company history:Alisarda was founded as an Air Taxi operations in March 1963. Scheduled flights began in 1965 and the airlined used Nord 262 aircraft between Olbia and Rome. The 262s were replaced in 1969 by the Fokker F27 Friendship and...
in 1963 by the Aga Khan
Aga Khan
Aga Khan is the hereditary title of the Imam of the largest branch of the Ismā'īlī followers of the Shī‘a faith. They affirm the Imamat of the descendants of Ismail ibn Jafar, eldest son of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, while the larger Twelver branch of Shi`ism follows Ismail's younger brother Musa...
, Prince Karim al-Hussayni.
The development of the Meridiana airlines followed the development of the resort village of Porto Cervo
Porto Cervo
Porto Cervo is an Italian seaside resort in northern Sardinia. It is a frazione of the comune of Arzachena, in the province of Olbia-Tempio. The village is the main centre of the Costa Smeralda, on the gulf of the same name. It was created by Prince Karim Aga Khan...
in the north east part of the island, a well known vacation spot among billionaires and movie stars worldwide.
Ship transport
Tirrenia di Navigazione
Tirrenia di Navigazione is a shipping company owned by Fintecna, which operates a fleet of 23 vessels on internal Italian routes and to Albania.-History:...
, Moby Lines
Moby Lines
Moby Lines is an Italian shipping company that operates ferries and cruiseferries between the Italian or French mainland and the islands of Elba, Sardinia and Corsica. The company was founded in 1959 under the name Navigazione Arcipelago Maddalenino .In 2006 Moby Lines purchased Lloyd Sardegna...
, Corsica Ferries
Corsica Ferries
Corsica Ferries and Sardinia Ferries are marketing names used by Corsica Ferries, a France-based ferry company that operates traffic to and from the islands of Corsica and Sardinia...
, Grandi Navi Veloci, Snav
SNAV
SNAV is an Italian company that operates ferry services from Italy to Sardinia, Croatia and Sicily.- Routes :SNAV operates a large network of routes across the Mediterranean and Adriatic....
, SNCM
SNCM
SNCM is a French ferry company operating in the Mediterranean.Its ferries sail from Marseille, Toulon, Nice on mainland France, Calvi, Bastia, Ajaccio, Ile Rousse, Propriano, and Porto Vecchio on Corsica, Porto Torres on Sardinia, Algiers, Oran, Skikda and Bejaia in Algeria as well as Tunis in...
, and CMN; they link the Sardinian harbors of Porto Torres
Porto Torres
Porto Torres is a comune and city in northern Sardinia, in the Province of Sassari.It is situated on the north coast about 25 km east of the Gorditanian promontory , and on the spacious bay of the Gulf of Asinara.-History:...
, Olbia
Olbia
Olbia is a town and comune of 56,231 inhabitants in northeastern Sardinia , in the Gallura sub-region. Called Olbia in the Roman age, Civita in the Middle Ages and Terranova Pausania before the 1940s, Olbia was again the official name of the town after the period of Fascism.-Geography:It is the...
, Golfo Aranci
Golfo Aranci
Golfo Aranci is a comune in the Province of Olbia-Tempio in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 200 km north of Cagliari and about 13 km northeast of Olbia.-History:...
, Arbatax
Arbatax
Arbatax is the greatest hamlet of Tortolì, Sardinia, in Italy. With almost 5,000 inhabitants, it is also the third town in its province by population, after Lanusei municipality and Tortolì proper .- History :...
, Santa Teresa Gallura
Santa Teresa Gallura
Santa Teresa Gallura is a town on the northern tip of Sardinia, on the Strait of Bonifacio. It belongs to the province of Olbia-Tempio and has 4.622 inhabitants . The southern coast of Corsica can be seen from the beach...
, Palau
Palau
Palau , officially the Republic of Palau , is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines and south of Tokyo. In 1978, after three decades as being part of the United Nations trusteeship, Palau chose independence instead of becoming part of the Federated States of Micronesia, a...
and Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
with Civitavecchia
Civitavecchia
Civitavecchia is a town and comune of the province of Rome in the central Italian region of Lazio. A sea port on the Tyrrhenian Sea, it is located 80 kilometers west-north-west of Rome, across the Mignone river. The harbor is formed by two piers and a breakwater, on which is a lighthouse...
, Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, Livorno
Livorno
Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...
, Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, Trapani
Trapani
Trapani is a city and comune on the west coast of Sicily in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an important fishing port and the main gateway to the nearby Egadi Islands.-History:...
, Piombino
Piombino
Piombino is an Italian town and comune of circa 35,000 inhabitants in the province of Livorno . It lies on the border between the Ligurian Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea, in front of Elba Island and at the northern side of Maremma.-Overview:...
in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
, Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
, Bonifacio, Propriano
Propriano
Propriano is a commune in the Corse-du-Sud department of France on the island of Corsica.It is situated on the Valinco Gulf.-Population:-References:*...
and Ajaccio
Ajaccio
Ajaccio , is a commune on the island of Corsica in France. It is the capital and largest city of the region of Corsica and the prefecture of the department of Corse-du-Sud....
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. A regional ferry company, the Saremar
Saremar
thumb|250px|Sibilla ferry.Saremar is an Italian shipping company, a subdivision of state-owned Tirrenia di Navigazione until 2009, when it was transferred to the Sardinian regional government. It operates in routes from Sardinia to La Maddelena and San Pietro islands...
, links the main island to the islands of La Maddalena
La Maddalena
La Maddalena is a town and comune located on the island with the same name, in northern Sardinia, part of the province of Olbia-Tempio, Italy.-The town:...
and San Pietro
Carloforte
Carloforte is a fishing and resort town of located on Isola di San Pietro , approximately 7 km off the South Western Coast of Sardinia, Italy....
, and from 2011, also the port of Olbia
Olbia
Olbia is a town and comune of 56,231 inhabitants in northeastern Sardinia , in the Gallura sub-region. Called Olbia in the Roman age, Civita in the Middle Ages and Terranova Pausania before the 1940s, Olbia was again the official name of the town after the period of Fascism.-Geography:It is the...
with Civitavecchia
Civitavecchia
Civitavecchia is a town and comune of the province of Rome in the central Italian region of Lazio. A sea port on the Tyrrhenian Sea, it is located 80 kilometers west-north-west of Rome, across the Mignone river. The harbor is formed by two piers and a breakwater, on which is a lighthouse...
.
Roads
Sardinia is the only Italian region without motorways, but the road network is well developed, with a system of "superstrade" (dual carriageDual carriageway
A dual carriageway is a class of highway with two carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation...
freeways), that connect the principal towns and the transport infrastructures; the speed limit is 90 km/h. The principal road is the SS131
Strada statale 131 Charles Felix
The Strada statale 131 , is the major road in Sardinia, Italy. It is a freeway which connects the towns of Porto Torres and Cagliari via Sassari, Macomer and Oristano...
"Carlo Felice", linking the north with the south of the island, crossing the most populated regions of Sassari
Sassari
Sassari is an Italian city. It is the second-largest city of Sardinia in terms of population with about 130,000 inhabitants, or about 300,000 including the greater metropolitan area...
and Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
; it is part of European route E25. The SS 131 d.c.n
Strada statale 131 Diramazione Centrale Nuorese
The Strada statale 131 Diramazione Centrale Nuorese, is a dual carriageway located in Sardinia, Italy.This freeway is connected to the Strada statale 131 Charles Felix, it links Abbasanta with Olbia, via Nuoro, crossing the hinterland mountainous regions of the island.It has a length of 148 km....
links Oristano
Oristano
Oristano is a town and comune, capital of the Province of Oristano, on the island of Sardinia, Italy. It has approximately 32,500 inhabitants.Its economy is mainly based on fishing, agriculture and, to a certain extent, tourism.-History:...
with Olbia
Olbia
Olbia is a town and comune of 56,231 inhabitants in northeastern Sardinia , in the Gallura sub-region. Called Olbia in the Roman age, Civita in the Middle Ages and Terranova Pausania before the 1940s, Olbia was again the official name of the town after the period of Fascism.-Geography:It is the...
, crossing the hinterland Nuoro
Nuoro
Nuoro is a city and comune in central-eastern Sardinia, Italy, situated on the slopes of the Monte Ortobene. It is the capital of the Province of Nuoro. With a population of 36,443 Nuoro is a city and comune (municipality) in central-eastern Sardinia, Italy, situated on the slopes of the Monte...
region. Other roads designed for high-capacity traffic link Sassari
Sassari
Sassari is an Italian city. It is the second-largest city of Sardinia in terms of population with about 130,000 inhabitants, or about 300,000 including the greater metropolitan area...
with Alghero
Alghero
Alghero , is a town of about 44,000 inhabitants in Italy. It lies in the province of Sassari in northwestern Sardinia, next to the sea.-History:The area of today's Alghero has been settled since pre-historic times...
, Sassari
Sassari
Sassari is an Italian city. It is the second-largest city of Sardinia in terms of population with about 130,000 inhabitants, or about 300,000 including the greater metropolitan area...
with Tempio Pausania
Tempio Pausania
Tempio Pausania is a town c. 14,000 inhabitants in the Gallura region of northern Sardinia, Italy, the administrative capital of the province of Olbia-Tempio.- History :...
, Sassari
Sassari
Sassari is an Italian city. It is the second-largest city of Sardinia in terms of population with about 130,000 inhabitants, or about 300,000 including the greater metropolitan area...
- Olbia
Olbia
Olbia is a town and comune of 56,231 inhabitants in northeastern Sardinia , in the Gallura sub-region. Called Olbia in the Roman age, Civita in the Middle Ages and Terranova Pausania before the 1940s, Olbia was again the official name of the town after the period of Fascism.-Geography:It is the...
, Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
- Tortolì
Tortolì
Tortolì is a town and comune in Sardinia, co-capital of the Province of Ogliastra with Lanusei.-Geography:Tortolì is situated on the eastern coast of Sardinia. Its port and greatest hamlet is Arbatax, who has also an airport connecting it to continental Italy and the European continent...
, Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
- Iglesias
Iglesias
Iglesias is a comune of Carbonia-Iglesias province in Sardinia, Italy.-Overview:Situated at 190 m in the hills in the southwest of Sardinia, it was a centre of a mining district, with lead, zinc, and silver being extracted, as well as for the distillation of sulfuric acid.Iglesias'...
, Nuoro
Nuoro
Nuoro is a city and comune in central-eastern Sardinia, Italy, situated on the slopes of the Monte Ortobene. It is the capital of the Province of Nuoro. With a population of 36,443 Nuoro is a city and comune (municipality) in central-eastern Sardinia, Italy, situated on the slopes of the Monte...
- Villagrande Strisaili
Villagrande Strisaili
Villagrande Strisaili is a comune in the Province of Ogliastra in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 150 km northeast of Cagliari and about 18 km northwest of Tortolì...
. A work in progress is converting the main routes to highways standards, with the elimination of all intersections
Intersection (road)
An intersection is a road junction where two or more roads either meet or cross at grade . An intersection may be 3-way - a T junction or fork, 4-way - a crossroads, or 5-way or more...
. The secondary inland and mountain roads are generally narrow with many hairpin turn
Hairpin turn
A hairpin turn , named for its resemblance to a hairpin/bobby pin, is a bend in a road with a very acute inner angle, making it necessary for an oncoming vehicle to turn almost 180° to continue on the road. Such turns in ramps and trails may be called switchbacks in American English, by analogy...
s, so the speed limits are very low.
Public transport
Public transport
Public transport is a shared passenger transportation service which is available for use by the general public, as distinct from modes such as taxicab, car pooling or hired buses which are not shared by strangers without private arrangement.Public transport modes include buses, trolleybuses, trams...
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) is the public regional bus transport agency.
Railways
The Sardinian railway system was developed in the 19th century, by the English engineer Lord Benjamin Piercy. Trains connect the whole island, and there are two different railway operators. TrenitaliaTrenitalia
Trenitalia is the primary train operator in Italy. Trenitalia is owned by Ferrovie dello Stato, itself owned by the Italian Government. It was created in 2000 following the EU directive on the deregulation of rail transport.-Passenger transport:...
is the largest, connecting the largest towns, the main ports, and also the Italian peninsula through the use of train ferries
Train ferry
A train ferry is a ship designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train ferries are sometimes referred to as "car ferries", as...
. This network is the most modern on the island, running primarily diesel locomotives such as the Alstom
Alstom
Alstom is a large multinational conglomerate which holds interests in the power generation and transport markets. According to the company website, in the years 2010-2011 Alstom had annual sales of over €20.9 billion, and employed more than 85,000 people in 70 countries. Alstom's headquarters are...
"Minuetto" and, from 2012, speed tilting trains such as the Spanish CAF
Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles
Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles is a rail equipment manufacturer based in Beasain in the Basque Country, Spain. Equipment manufactured by CAF includes light rail vehicles, rapid transit trains, railroad cars and locomotives, as well as variable gauge axles that can be fitted on any...
Class 598 or the Talgo XXI. The second operator is ARST Gestione FdS, best known as Ferrovie della Sardegna
Ferrovie della Sardegna
The Ferrovie della Sardegna , know also as ARST Gestione FdS and with the acronym FdS, is the regional railway network, in the island of Sardinia, Italy....
(Sardinian Railways), running on narrow-gauge track, and they are generally very slow, except the electrified tram-trains, operating in the metropolitan areas of Sassari
Sassari Tram-train
The Sassari Tram-train also known as the Sassari metro-tramway is a tram-train system in Sassari, Italy...
and Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
. Many tourists catch the trenino verde, which runs through the wildest parts of the island. It is slow but allows the traveller to have scenic views impossible to see from the main road.
Communications
Sardinia has become Europe’s first region to fully adopt the new Digital Terrestrial TelevisionDigital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television is the technological evolution of broadcast television and advance from analog television, which broadcasts land-based signals...
broadcasting standard. From the 1st of November 2008 TV channels are broadcast only in digital.
On the island is located the Skylogic Mediterraneo (Mediterranean Skylogic Teleport), a ground station controlled by satellite provider Eutelsat
Eutelsat
Eutelsat S.A. is a French-based satellite provider. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, as well as the Middle East, Africa, India and significant parts of Asia and the Americas, it is one of the world's three leading satellite operators in terms of revenues.Eutelsat’s satellites...
.
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. The population distribution is anomalous compared to that of other Italian regions lying on the sea. In fact, contrary to the general trend, urban settlement has not taken place primarily along the coast but towards the centre of the island. Historical reasons for this include repeated SaracenSaracen
Saracen was a term used by the ancient Romans to refer to a people who lived in desert areas in and around the Roman province of Arabia, and who were distinguished from Arabs. In Europe during the Middle Ages the term was expanded to include Arabs, and then all who professed the religion of Islam...
raids during the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
(making the coast unsafe), widespread pastoral activities inland, and the swampy nature of the coastal plains (reclaimed 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 Italian region with the lowest total fertility rate
Total Fertility Rate
The total fertility rate of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates through her lifetime, and she...
(1.087 births per woman), and the region with the second lowest birth rate
Birth rate
Crude birth rate is the nativity or childbirths per 1,000 people per year . Another word used interchangeably with "birth rate" is "natality". When the crude birth rate is subtracted from the crude death rate, it reveals the rate of natural increase...
; these factors, together with the high level of urbanization of population, allow the preservation of the greater part of the natural environment. However, the population has increased in recent years due to immigration, mainly from Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
(esp. Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
), Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
At the end of 2009 there were 33,000 foreign national residents, forming 2% of the total Sardinian population. The most represented nationalities are :
8.259 4.132 2.548 2.250 1.540 1.435 1.266 1.143 727 612
Average life expectancy
Life expectancy
Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...
is 81 years (85 for women and 78 for men). Sardinia shares with the Japanese island of Okinawa the highest rate of centenarians in the world (22 centenarians/100,000 inhabitants).
Languages
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
(Italiano), the language of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Sardinian
Sardinian language
Sardinian is a Romance language spoken and written on most of the island of Sardinia . It is considered the most conservative of the Romance languages in terms of phonology and is noted for its Paleosardinian substratum....
(Sardu) is the most diffuse language widely spoken on the island. Sardinian is a distinct branch of the Romance language family, and not a dialect of Italian
Italian dialects
Dialects of Italian are regional varieties of the Italian language, more commonly and more accurately referred to as Regional Italian. The dialects have features, most notably phonological and lexical, percolating from the underlying substrate languages...
. The language has been influenced by Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and indigenous Nuragic
Nuragic civilization
The Nuragic civilization was a civilization of Sardinia, lasting from the Bronze Age to the 2nd century AD. The name derives from its most characteristic monuments, the nuraghe. They consist of tower-fortresses, built starting from about 1800 BC...
elements with some roots from Phoenician
Phoenician languages
Phoenician was a language originally spoken in the coastal region then called "Canaan" in Phoenician, Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic, "Phoenicia" in Greek and Latin, and "Pūt" in Ancient Egyptian. Phoenician is a Semitic language of the Canaanite subgroup; its closest living relative is Hebrew, to...
and Etruscan
Etruscan language
The Etruscan language was spoken and written by the Etruscan civilization, in what is present-day Italy, in the ancient region of Etruria and in parts of Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna...
. While it has been significantly supplanted by Italian for official purposes, in 2006 the regional administration has approved the use of Limba Sarda Comuna in official documents. As a literary language, it is gaining importance, despite heated debate about the lack of standard orthography and controversial proposed solutions to this problem. The two most widely spoken forms of the Sardinian language are Campidanese (Sardu Campidanesu), spoken throughout the southern half of the island, and Logudorese (Sardu Logudoresu), from the northern-central region, extending almost to the suburbs of Sassari
Sassari
Sassari is an Italian city. It is the second-largest city of Sardinia in terms of population with about 130,000 inhabitants, or about 300,000 including the greater metropolitan area...
.
The Sassarese (Sassaresu) and Gallurese (Gaddhuresu) varieties are often termed Corso-Sardinian dialects. Spoken in the extreme north of Sardinia, they are sometimes considered as independent languages or to be part of Corsican
Corsican language
Corsican is a Italo-Dalmatian Romance language spoken and written on the islands of Corsica and northern Sardinia . Corsican is the traditional native language of the Corsican people, and was long the vernacular language alongside the Italian, official language in Corsica until 1859, which was...
rather than Sardinian.
In Sardinia there are examples of language islands: Algherese (Alguerés) is a variant of Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
spoken in the city of Alghero
Alghero
Alghero , is a town of about 44,000 inhabitants in Italy. It lies in the province of Sassari in northwestern Sardinia, next to the sea.-History:The area of today's Alghero has been settled since pre-historic times...
; on the islands of San Pietro
San Pietro Island
San Pietro Island is an island approximately 7 km off the South western Coast of Sardinia, Italy, facing the Sulcis peninsula. With 51 km² it is the sixth largest island of Italy by area. The approximately 6,000 inhabitants are mostly concentrated in the fishing town of Carloforte, the...
and Sant'Antioco
Sant'Antioco
Sant'Antioco is the name of both an island and a municipality in southwestern Sardinia, in the Province of Carbonia-Iglesias, in Sulcis zone. With a population of 11,730, the municipality of Sant'Antioco it is the island's largest community...
, located in the extreme south west of Sardinia, the local population speaks a variant of Ligurian
Ligurian language (Romance)
Ligurian is a Gallo-Romance language spoken in Liguria in Northern Italy, parts of the Mediterranean coastal zone of France, Monaco and in the villages of Carloforte and Calasetta in Sardinia. Genoese , spoken in Genoa, the capital of Liguria, is its most important dialect...
called Tabarchino (Tabarchin); fewer and fewer people speak Venetian
Venetian language
Venetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken as a native language by over two million people, mostly in the Veneto region of Italy, where of five million inhabitants almost all can understand it. It is sometimes spoken and often well understood outside Veneto, in Trentino, Friuli, Venezia...
, Friulian
Friulian language
Friulan , is a Romance language belonging to the Rhaeto-Romance family, spoken in the Friuli region of northeastern Italy. Friulan has around 800,000 speakers, the vast majority of whom also speak Italian...
and Istriot
Istriot language
Istriot is a Romance language spoken in the Western Region on the coast of the Istrian Peninsula, especially in the towns of Rovinj and Vodnjan , on the upper northern part of the Adriatic Sea, in Croatia.-Classification:...
in Arborea
Arborea
Arborea is a town and comune in the province of Oristano, Sardinia, Italy, whose economy is largely based on agriculture, with production of vegetables and fruit.- History :...
and Fertilia
Fertilia
Fertilia [fer-tì-lia] is a village on the municipality of Alghero in the province of Sassari, Sardinia, Italy.-History:Fertilia was built by the Fascist government of Italy in the 1930s, after the draining of the marshes which covered the area....
, having been populated in the 1920s and 1930s by families who mainly came from north-eastern Italy.
Surnames
Twenty most common surnames in the Sardinia region.- 1. SannaSannaThe Sanna is a tributary of the Vistula in Poland. Its source is in the village of Wierzchowiska II in Lublin Voivodeship, Galicia. It flows westward through a rural area. Then, it turns northward for a few kilometers until flowing into the Vistula near the city of Annopol. It is about 50 km...
- 2. Piras
- 3. PinnaPinnaIn animal anatomy, the pinna is the visible part of the ear that resides outside of the head ....
- 4. Serra
- 5. MelisMelisMelis is a Turkish given name for females. People named Melis include:* Melis Birkan, Turkish actress* Karin Melis Mey, Turkish long jumper* Melis Sezer, Turkish tennis player...
- 6. CartaCartaCarta is Latin and Italian for "paper" and is Spanish and Portuguese "Letter". In English it takes the form "card" or "chart". That said, most of its uses pertain to its meaning as "paper", "chart", or "map", for example in Magna Carta.-Other uses:...
- 7. Manca
- 8. Meloni
- 9. MuraMuraThe Mur is a river in Central Europe rising in the Hohe Tauern national park in Austria with its source being 1,898 metres above sea level, a tributary of the Drava and subsequently the Danube.The Mur's total length is , of which 295 km is in Austria, 95 km is in...
- 10. LaiLai (disambiguation)Lai may refer to:* Lai, Northern European song form* Lai * Lai people, people belonging to the Lai Autonomous District Council of Mizoram, North East India** Lai language* Laï, city in Chad* Lai, fruit, the Chinese pear...
- 11. Murgia
- 12. Porcu
- 13. Cossu
- 14. Usai
- 15. Loi
- 16. Marras
- 17. FlorisFloris-People:* A masculine given name of Dutch origin.* Five counts of Holland:**Floris I, Count of Holland**Floris II, Count of Holland**Floris III, Count of Holland**Floris IV, Count of Holland**Floris V, Count of Holland...
- 18. Deiana
- 19. Cocco
- 20. Fadda
Government and politics
Sardinia is one of the five Italian autonomous regionsRegions of Italy
The regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of the state, constituting its first NUTS administrative level. There are twenty regions, of which five are constitutionally given a broader amount of autonomy granted by special statutes....
, along with Valle d'Aosta, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
. Its statute, which is a constitutional law, gives the region the right to create its own laws in a wide number of domains and to carry out regional administrative functions.
The regional administration is constituted by three authorities:
- the Regional Council (legislative power)
- the Regional Junta (executive power)
- the President (chief of executive power)
Administrative divisions
Until 2005, Sardinia had been divided into four provinces: CagliariProvince of Cagliari
Cagliari is a province in the autonomous island region of Sardinia in Italy. Its capital is the city of Cagliari.It has an area of 4,470 km², and a total population of 543,310 . There are 71 comuni in the province....
, Nuoro
Province of Nuoro
The Province of Nuoro is a province in the autonomous island region of Sardinia, Italy. Its capital is the city of Nuoro.It has an area of 3,934 km², and a total population of 161,444. The province is divided into 52 comuni, the largest of which are Nuoro , Siniscola , Macomer , and Dorgali...
, Oristano
Province of Oristano
Oristano is a province in the autonomous island region of Sardinia in Italy. Its capital is the city of Oristano.It has an area of 3,040 km², and a total population of 167,971 . There are 88 municipalities in the province ). As of June 2005, the main communes by population are:-Politics:-External...
and Sassari
Province of Sassari
The Province of Sassari is a province in the autonomous island region of Sardinia in Italy. Its capital is the city of Sassari.-Geography:It has an area of 4,282 km², and a total population of 322,326 . There are 66 municipalities in the province, the largest of which are Sassari The...
. In 2005 the Regional Council decided to create four new provinces becoming operative with the provincial elections for the Presidents and the Councils held in 2006. The four additional provinces are as follows: Carbonia-Iglesias
Province of Carbonia-Iglesias
Carbonia-Iglesias is a province in the autonomous region of Sardinia, Italy which includes the historical region of Sulcis-Iglesiente, the southwestern part of Sardinia.-Overview:...
, Medio Campidano
Province of Medio Campidano
Medio Campidano is a province in the autonomous region of Sardinia, Italy.It was created in 2005 from part of the province of Cagliari. It contains 28 communities, the largest of which by population are :-Politics:...
, Ogliastra
Province of Ogliastra
Ogliastra is a province in eastern Sardinia, Italy. Ogliastra is the most mountainous province in Sardinia. With only some 58,000 inhabitants, it is also the least populous province of Italy. It corresponds roughly to the medieval Giudicato of Agugliastra...
, Olbia-Tempio
Province of Olbia-Tempio
Olbia-Tempio is the name of a province in the autonomous region of Sardinia, Italy.The territory includes the historical region of Gallura , the northeastern coast of Sardinia , and the island of La Maddalena ....
.
| Province | Area (km²) | Population | Density (inh./km²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Province of Cagliari Province of Cagliari Cagliari is a province in the autonomous island region of Sardinia in Italy. Its capital is the city of Cagliari.It has an area of 4,470 km², and a total population of 543,310 . There are 71 comuni in the province.... |
4,570 | 559,416 | 122.4 |
| Province of Carbonia-Iglesias Province of Carbonia-Iglesias Carbonia-Iglesias is a province in the autonomous region of Sardinia, Italy which includes the historical region of Sulcis-Iglesiente, the southwestern part of Sardinia.-Overview:... |
1,495 | 130,538 | 87.3 |
| Province of Medio Campidano Province of Medio Campidano Medio Campidano is a province in the autonomous region of Sardinia, Italy.It was created in 2005 from part of the province of Cagliari. It contains 28 communities, the largest of which by population are :-Politics:... |
1,516 | 103,107 | 68.0 |
| Province of Nuoro Province of Nuoro The Province of Nuoro is a province in the autonomous island region of Sardinia, Italy. Its capital is the city of Nuoro.It has an area of 3,934 km², and a total population of 161,444. The province is divided into 52 comuni, the largest of which are Nuoro , Siniscola , Macomer , and Dorgali... |
3,934 | 161,453 | 41.0 |
| Province of Ogliastra Province of Ogliastra Ogliastra is a province in eastern Sardinia, Italy. Ogliastra is the most mountainous province in Sardinia. With only some 58,000 inhabitants, it is also the least populous province of Italy. It corresponds roughly to the medieval Giudicato of Agugliastra... |
1,854 | 58,088 | 31.3 |
| Province of Olbia-Tempio Province of Olbia-Tempio Olbia-Tempio is the name of a province in the autonomous region of Sardinia, Italy.The territory includes the historical region of Gallura , the northeastern coast of Sardinia , and the island of La Maddalena .... |
3,399 | 153,886 | 45.2 |
| Province of Oristano Province of Oristano Oristano is a province in the autonomous island region of Sardinia in Italy. Its capital is the city of Oristano.It has an area of 3,040 km², and a total population of 167,971 . There are 88 municipalities in the province ). As of June 2005, the main communes by population are:-Politics:-External... |
3,040 | 167,357 | 55.0 |
| Province of Sassari Province of Sassari The Province of Sassari is a province in the autonomous island region of Sardinia in Italy. Its capital is the city of Sassari.-Geography:It has an area of 4,282 km², and a total population of 322,326 . There are 66 municipalities in the province, the largest of which are Sassari The... |
4,282 | 336,374 | 78.5 |
Culture
Sardinia is one of two Italian regions, with VenetoVeneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
, whose inhabitants have been recognised as a popolo (people) by the local statute
Statute
A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs a state, city, or county. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. The word is often used to distinguish law made by legislative bodies from case law, decided by courts, and regulations...
which is adopted with a constitutional law
Constitutional law
Constitutional law is the body of law which defines the relationship of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary....
, although in Veneto this was not through a constitutional law.
Music
Sardinia is home to one of the oldest forms of vocal polyphonyPolyphony
In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
, generally known as cantu a tenore; several famous musicians have found it irresistible, including Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
, Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....
, and Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
. The latter travelled to the town of Bitti
Bitti
Bitti is a comune in the Province of Nuoro in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 140 km north of Cagliari and about 20 km north of Nuoro....
in the central mountainous region and recorded the now world-famous Tenores di Bitti
Tenores di Bitti
The Tenores di Bitti are a traditional folk music group from Bitti, Sardinia who employ a polyphonic vocal style, often described as a type of overtone singing, whose oral tradition dates back to 3000 BC ....
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
Corsican language
Corsican is a Italo-Dalmatian Romance language spoken and written on the islands of Corsica and northern Sardinia . Corsican is the traditional native language of the Corsican people, and was long the vernacular language alongside the Italian, official language in Corsica until 1859, which was...
paghjella and liturgic in nature, is found in Sardinia and is known as cantu a cuncordu.
Another unique instrument is the launeddas
Launeddas
The launeddas is a typical Sardinian woodwind instrument, consisting of three pipes. It is polyphonic and played using circular breathing. An ancient instrument, dating back to at least the 8th century BC, launeddas are still played during religious ceremonies and dances...
. Three reed-canes (two of them glued together with beeswax
Beeswax
Beeswax is a natural wax produced in the bee hive of honey bees of the genus Apis. It is mainly esters of fatty acids and various long chain alcohols...
) produce distinctive harmonies, which have their roots many thousands of years ago, as demonstrated by the bronzette from Ittiri
Ittiri
Ittiri is a comune in the Province of Sassari in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 160 km northwest of Cagliari and about 15 km south of Sassari. It is part of the Logudoro traditional region.-Main sights:...
, of a man playing the three reed canes, dated to 2000 BC.
Beyond this, the tradition of cantu a chiterra (guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
songs) has its origins in town squares, when artists would compete against one another. The most famous singer of this genre are Maria Carta
Maria Carta
Maria Carta was a Rome-based Sardinian folk music singer-songwriter. She also performed in film and theater and, in 1975, she wrote a book of poetry, Ritual Song.She was born in Siligo, Sassari, Sardinia....
and Elena Ledda
Elena Ledda
Elena Ledda is a Sardinian singer.Born near Cagliari, she pursued conservatory studies in oboe and voice. Ledda has a dramatic soprano voice suitable for opera, which she originally performed as an artist, but was attracted by the folk singing of her native Sardinia and has chosen a career...
.
Sardinian culture is alive and well, and young people are actively involved in their own music and dancing. In 2004, BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
presenter Andy Kershaw
Andy Kershaw
Andy Kershaw is a British broadcaster, known for his interest in world music.His shows feature a mix of country, blues, reggae, folk music, spoken word performance from the likes of Ivor Cutler, and other music from around the world.- Early Life :Kershaw and his sister, fellow broadcaster Liz...
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
Paolo Fresu
Paolo Fresu is a trumpet and flugelhorn jazz player, as well as an arranger of music, and music composer.-Career:Fresu was born in Berchidda, Sardinia. He picked up the trumpet at the age of 11, and played in the band Bernardo de Muro in his home town Berchidda...
.
The main opera house
Opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...
of the island is the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
.
Cuisine
Rock lobsterRock lobster
Jasus edwardsii, the southern rock lobster, red rock lobster, or spiny rock lobster, is a species of spiny lobster found throughout coastal waters of southern Australia and New Zealand including the Chatham Islands. This species is commonly called crayfish or crays in New Zealand and in Māori...
, scampi
Scampi
Scampi is the term for a particular type of lobster, deriving originally from the Greek word κάμπη 'kampē' meaning a 'bending' or 'winding'. The name is sometimes used loosely to describe a style of preparation typically for seafood, and as a culinary name for some species of crustacean...
, bottarga
Bottarga
Botargo, also called bottarga , poutargue or boutargue , botarga , batarekh or avgotaraho is a Mediterranean delicacy of cured fish roe....
, squid, tuna, sardines and other seafood figure prominently in Sardinian cuisine. Suckling pig and wild boar are roasted on the spit or boiled in stews of beans and vegetables, thickened with bread. Herbs such as 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 pinatus, 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.
Sports
CagliariCagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
is home to Cagliari Calcio
Cagliari Calcio
Cagliari Calcio is an Italian football club based in Cagliari, Sardinia. The club was formed in 1920 and currently plays in Italian Serie A, having spent a large part of recent years mainly in Serie A and Serie B....
, which was founded in 1920 and plays in the Serie A
Serie A
Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...
, the Italian top division. It won the Italian Championship after the 1969/70 season, becoming the first club in Southern Italy to achieve such a result. Home matches are played at the Stadio Sant' Elia, named after the area where it is located, with a capacity of 23,486. It was built in 1970 and refurbished before the Italia '90 football World Cup.
Darts
Darts is a form of throwing game where darts are thrown at a circular target fixed to a wall. Though various boards and games have been used in the past, the term "darts" usually now refers to a standardised game involving a specific board design and set of rules...
tradition, which many believe originated in the Sassari
Sassari
Sassari is an Italian city. It is the second-largest city of Sardinia in terms of population with about 130,000 inhabitants, or about 300,000 including the greater metropolitan area...
region of the country towards the end of the 15th century. In those days, the darts were carved from Beech
Beech
Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...
(Fagus) wood and the flights were feathers drawn from the indigenous pollo sultano, a bird famed for its spectacular violet-blue plumage.
In the Province of Sassari
Province of Sassari
The Province of Sassari is a province in the autonomous island region of Sardinia in Italy. Its capital is the city of Sassari.-Geography:It has an area of 4,282 km², and a total population of 322,326 . There are 66 municipalities in the province, the largest of which are Sassari The...
is the Mores Raceway
Autodromo di Mores
Autodromo di Mores is a permanent motor racing and motorbike race track on the Italian island of Sardinia. Building first started on the circuit on 15 July 2000 and was completed on 15 March 2003. The circuit hosts the Prove Libere Motociclistiche, Sardegna VaCanze, BMW Academy, Gully Racing and...
, the only FIA
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile is a non-profit association established as the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users...
Circuit homologated by CSAI (Cars) and the IMF (Motorcycles), in Sardinia.
Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
hosted a Formula 3000
Formula 3000
The Formula 3000 International Championship was a motor racing series created by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile in 1985 to become the final preparatory step for drivers hoping to enter the Formula One championship...
race in 2002 and 2003 on a 2.414-km street circuit around Sant'Elia stadium
Stadium
A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...
. In 2003, Renault
Renault
Renault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, and in the past, autorail vehicles, trucks, tractors, vans and also buses/coaches. Its alliance with Nissan makes it the world's third largest automaker...
F1's Jarno Trulli
Jarno Trulli
Jarno Trulli is an Italian Formula One racing driver. He has been a regular in Formula One since 1997, driving for Minardi, Prost, Jordan, Renault and Toyota. He won the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix for Renault, his only Grand Prix victory to date. He is known for being a qualification expert...
and former Ferrari
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...
driver Jean Alesi
Jean Alesi
Jean Alesi is a French racing driver of Italian origin. His Formula One career included spells at Tyrrell, Benetton, Sauber, Prost, Jordan and most notably Ferrari where he proved very popular among the tifosi...
did a spectacular exhibition. At the Grand Prix
Italian Grand Prix
The Italian Grand Prix is one of the longest running events on the motor racing calendar. The first Italian Grand Prix motor racing championship took place on 4 September 1921 at Brescia...
BMW-F1 driver Robert Kubica took part in a F3
Formula Three
Formula Three, also called Formula 3 or F3, is a class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers...
car, as did BMW WTCC Augusto Farfus, GP2
GP2 Series
The GP2 Series, GP2 for short, is a form of open wheel motor racing introduced in 2005 following the discontinuation of the long-term Formula One feeder series, Formula 3000. The format was conceived by Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, while Ecclestone also has the rights to the name GP1...
's Fairuz Fauzy and Vitaly Petrov
Vitaly Petrov
Vitaly Alexandrovich Petrov is a Russian Formula One racing driver, currently driving for the Lotus Renault GP team. He is known as "Vyborg Rocket" in Russia. He is, to date, the only Russian to have competed in the Formula One World Championship....
. Since 2004 Olbia
Olbia
Olbia is a town and comune of 56,231 inhabitants in northeastern Sardinia , in the Gallura sub-region. Called Olbia in the Roman age, Civita in the Middle Ages and Terranova Pausania before the 1940s, Olbia was again the official name of the town after the period of Fascism.-Geography:It is the...
has hosted the Rally d'Italia Sardegna
Rally d'Italia Sardegna
The Rally d'Italia Sardegna is a rally competition that has been a round of the World Rally Championship schedule and also the Intercontinental Rally Challenge . The rally is held on narrow, twisty, sandy and bumpy mountain roads around the town of Porto Cervo...
, a rally
Rallying
Rallying, also known as rally racing, is a form of auto racing that takes place on public or private roads with modified production or specially built road-legal cars...
competition in the FIA
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile is a non-profit association established as the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users...
World Rally Championship
World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship is a rallying series organised by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver and manufacturer. The driver's world championship and manufacturer's world championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. The series currently consists of 13...
schedule. The rally is held on narrow, twisty, sandy and bumpy mountainous roads around the glamorous town of Porto Cervo
Porto Cervo
Porto Cervo is an Italian seaside resort in northern Sardinia. It is a frazione of the comune of Arzachena, in the province of Olbia-Tempio. The village is the main centre of the Costa Smeralda, on the gulf of the same name. It was created by Prince Karim Aga Khan...
.
Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
hosts regular international regattas, such RC44 championship, Farr 40
Farr 40
The Farr 40 is a 40 foot one-design sailboat designed by Farr Yacht Design in 1996 following after the Mumm 30. It is currently built by US Watercraft...
World championship and Audi MedCup
Audi MedCup
The Audi MedCup is a sailing competition which began in 2005 and has turned into the world’s leading regatta circuit.It is sailed in the TP52 and Soto 40 classes ....
; all series which boast current America's Cup
America's Cup
The America’s Cup is a trophy awarded to the winner of the America's Cup match races between two yachts. One yacht, known as the defender, represents the yacht club that currently holds the America's Cup and the second yacht, known as the challenger, represents the yacht club that is challenging...
contenders like BMW Oracle Racing
BMW Oracle Racing
Oracle Racing is an American sailboat racing syndicate initially formed to compete for the 2003 America’s Cup. They competed again in the 2007 event before winning the 33rd America's Cup regatta in 2010 - representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club....
, Mascalzone Latino and Emirates Team New Zealand as contenders. Part of the Louis Vuitton Trophy
Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena
The Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena was the third in a scheduled series of regattas that form the Louis Vuitton Trophy. The regatta occurred in La Maddalena between 22 May - 6 June 2010...
was held in the Maddalena archipelago
Maddalena archipelago
The Maddalena Archipelago is a group of islands in the Straits of Bonifacio between Corsica and north-eastern Sardinia, Italy. It consists of seven main islands and numerous other small islets.-Geography:...
in 2010.
Porto Pollo
Porto Pollo is an Italian località, in the comune of Palau, on the norther Sardinian shore. It is named after the natural harbour just east of the baia di levante , east of Isuledda....
, north of Palau
Palau (OT)
Palau is a comune in the Province of Olbia-Tempio in the Italian region Sardinia, about 220 km north of Cagliari and about 30 km northwest of Olbia. It was a frazione of the comune of Tempio Pausania until 1959.It is in Punta Sardegna, and was founded in 1875 by local...
, is a bay often used by windsurfers
Windsurfing
Windsurfing or sailboarding is a surface water sport that combines elements of surfing and sailing. It consists of a board usually two to four metres long, powered by the orthogonal effect of the wind on a sail. The rig is connected to the board by a free-rotating universal joint and comprises a...
and kitesurfers
Kitesurfing
Kitesurfing or Kiteboarding is an adventure surface water sport that has been described as combining wakeboarding, windsurfing, surfing, paragliding, and gymnastics into one extreme sport. Kitesurfing harnesses the power of the wind to propel a rider across the water on a small surfboard or a...
. The bay is divided by a thin tongue of land that separates it in an area for advanced and beginning/intermediate windsurfers. There is also a restricted area for kitesurfers. Many Italian freestyle surfers come to Porto Pollo for training and 2007 saw the finale of the freestyle pro kids Europe 2007 contest. Because of a Venturi effect
Venturi effect
The Venturi effect is the reduction in fluid pressure that results when a fluid flows through a constricted section of pipe. The Venturi effect is named after Giovanni Battista Venturi , an Italian physicist.-Background:...
between Sardinia and Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
, western wind accelerates between the islands and creates the wind that makes Porto Pollo popular amongst windsurfing enthusiasts. In 2005, Aglientu
Aglientu
Aglientu is a comune in the Province of Olbia-Tempio in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 210 km north of Cagliari and about 35 km northwest of Olbia...
, hosted the Kitesurf World Cup in the Vignola
Trinità d'Agultu e Vignola
Trinità d'Agultu e Vignola is a comune in the Province of Olbia-Tempio in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 200 km north of Cagliari and about 50 km west of Olbia....
's beach.
Sa Istrumpa, also known as Sardinian Wrestling, is a traditional Sardinian sport, officially recognized by the Italian National Olympic Committee (C.O.N.I.) and International Federation of Celtic Wrestling (I.F.C.W.).
World Heritage Sites
Megalithic building structures called nuragheNuraghe
The nuraghe is the main type of ancient megalithic edifice found in Sardinia. Today it has come to be the symbol of Sardinia and its distinctive culture, the Nuragic civilization...
are scattered in great number throughout Sardinia. Su Nuraxi di Barumini
Su Nuraxi di Barumini
Su Nuraxi is a nuragic archaeological site in Barumini, Sardinia, Italy. It was inscribed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1997 as Su Nuraxi di Barumini.Su Nuraxi simply means "the nuraghe" in Sardinian....
is a UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
.
Environment
The island has some environmental laws, after an enormous plan of reforestation it has become the Italian region with the largest forest extension, with 1,213,250 hectares of woods. 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 Coastal conservation agencyConservatoria delle Coste
The Conservatoria delle Coste is a Sardinian public agency created by the Regional Law N°2 of the 29th of May 2007, to ensure the protection of outstanding natural areas on the Sardinian coast.Its creation was inspired...
ensures the protection of natural areas on the Sardinian coast. Renewable energies have increased noticeably in recent years, mainly wind power
Wind power
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
, favoured by the windy climate, but also solar power
Solar power
Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...
(Carlo Rubbia
Carlo Rubbia
Carlo Rubbia Knight Grand Cross is an Italian particle physicist and inventor who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984 with Simon van der Meer for work leading to the discovery of the W and Z particles at CERN.-Biography:...
, Nobelist in physics, is creating an experimental solar thermal energy
Solar thermal energy
Solar thermal energy is a technology for harnessing solar energy for thermal energy . Solar thermal collectors are classified by the United States Energy Information Administration as low-, medium-, or high-temperature collectors. Low-temperature collectors are flat plates generally used to heat...
central) and biofuel
Biofuel
Biofuel is a type of fuel whose energy is derived from biological carbon fixation. Biofuels include fuels derived from biomass conversion, as well as solid biomass, liquid fuels and various biogases...
, based on Jatropha oil
Jatropha oil
Jatropha oil is vegetable oil produced from the seeds of the Jatropha curcas, a plant that can grow in marginal lands.-Use as biodiesel:...
and Colza oil
Colza oil
Colza oil is a nondrying oil obtained from the seeds of Brassica rapa, var. oleifera, a variety of the plant that produces turnips. Colza is extensively cultivated in France, Belgium, the United States, the Netherlands and Germany and Poland. In France, especially, the extraction of the oil is an...
. 467.10 megawatts of wind power
Wind power
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
capacity were installed on the island at 2008.
Fauna and Flora
Mediterranean Monk Seal
The Mediterranean monk seal is a pinniped belonging to the Phocidae family. At some 450-510 remaining individuals, it is believed to be the world's second-rarest pinniped , and one of the most endangered mammals in the world.It is present in parts of the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Atlantic...
, the Giara horse, the Albino Donkey
Albino Donkey
The Asinara donkey, in Italian Asino dell'Asinara, is a rare breed of feral white donkey indigenous to the island of Asinara, which lies off the north-west coast of Sardinia, Italy, in the province of Sassari. It is one of the seven indigenous donkey "breeds of limited distribution" listed by the...
, the Mouflon
Mouflon
The mouflon is a subspecies group of the wild sheep Ovis aries. Populations of Ovis aries can be partitioned into the mouflons and urials or arkars...
, the Sardinian Long-eared Bat
Sardinian Long-eared Bat
The Sardinian Long-eared Bat is a species of bat endemic to Sardinia.This species was discovered in 2002 in the caves of central Sardinia. Is currently the only endemic bat discovered in Italy...
, the Sardinian Deer, the Sardinian fox, and the wild boar. Found only in Sardinia, Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, and the Maghreb
Maghreb
The Maghreb is the region of Northwest Africa, west of Egypt. It includes five countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara...
, the Sardinian skink
Skink
Skinks are lizards belonging to the family Scincidae. Together with several other lizard families, including Lacertidae , they comprise the superfamily or infraorder Scincomorpha...
(Chalcides ocellatus), known more commonly as the tiligugu, can reach 30 cm (12 in) in length, of which almost half consists of the tail. Conversely, Sardinia lacks many common species such as the viper
Viperinae
The Viperinae, or viperines, are a subfamily of venomous vipers found in Europe, Asia and Africa. They are distinguished by their lack of the heat-sensing pit organs that characterize their sister group, the Crotalinae. Currently, 12 genera and 66 species are recognized...
and the marmot
Marmot
The marmots are a genus, Marmota, of squirrels. There are 14 species in this genus.Marmots are generally large ground squirrels. Those most often referred to as marmots tend to live in mountainous areas such as the Alps, northern Apennines, Eurasian steppes, Carpathians, Tatras, and Pyrenees in...
, which are found everywhere else on the European continent. The island has also long been used for grazing flocks of indigenous Sardinian sheep. Sardinia has four endemic subspecies of birds found nowhere else in the world: its Great Spotted Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
The Great Spotted Woodpecker , Dendrocopos major, is a bird species of the woodpecker family . It is distributed throughout Europe and northern Asia, and usually resident year-round except in the colder parts of its range...
(ssp harterti), Great Tit
Great Tit
The Great Tit is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is a widespread and common species throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central and Northern Asia, and parts of North Africa in any sort of woodland. It is generally resident, and most Great Tits do not migrate except in extremely...
(ssp ecki), Chaffinch
Chaffinch
The Chaffinch , also called by a wide variety of other names, is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae.- Description :...
(ssp sarda), and Eurasian Jay
Jay
The jays are several species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the crow family Corvidae. The names jay and magpie are somewhat interchangeable, and the evolutionary relationships are rather complex...
(ssp ichnusae). It also shares a further 10 endemic subspecies of bird with Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
. In some cases Sardinia is a delimited part of the species range. For example, the subspecies of Hooded Crow
Hooded Crow
The Hooded Crow is a Eurasian bird species in the crow genus. Widely distributed, it is also known locally as Scotch Crow, Danish Crow, and Corbie or Grey Crow in Ireland, which is what its Welsh name, Brân Lwyd, translates as...
, Corvus cornix ssp cornix occurs in Sardinia and Corsica, but no further south.
Natural parks and reserves
Over 600,000 hectares of Sardinian territory are environmentally preserved (about 25% of the island's territory).The island has three national parks:
- 1. Asinara National ParkAsinara National ParkAsinara is the third largest island of Sardinia after Sant'Antioco. It houses a great variety of habitats. The island has an extremely peculiar historical, environmental, and juridical situation...
; - 2. Arcipelago di La Maddalena National ParkArcipelago di La Maddalena National ParkArcipelago di La Maddalena National Park is a geomarine national park on the coast of Sardinia. It covers an area on land and sea of over 12,000 hectares and 180 kilometers of coasts. This region includes all the islands and islets within the territory of the Municipality of La Maddalena, Italy...
; - 3. Gennargentu National ParkGennargentu National ParkThe Gennargentu National Park is a national park on the east coast of Sardinia....
.
Ten regional parks:
- 4. Parco del Limbara
- 5. Parco del Marghine e Goceano
- 6. Parco del Sinis - Montiferru
- 7. Parco di Monte Arci
- 8. 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 the UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
.
See also
- Sardinian languageSardinian languageSardinian is a Romance language spoken and written on most of the island of Sardinia . It is considered the most conservative of the Romance languages in terms of phonology and is noted for its Paleosardinian substratum....
, GallureseGallureseGallurese is a Italo-Dalmatian Romance language spoken in the northeastern part of Sardinia. It is often considered as a variety of Corsican, or a transitional language between Corsican and Sardinian....
, SassareseSassareseSassarese is an Italo-Dalmatian language and transitional between Corsican and Sardinian. It is regarded as a Corsican–Sardinian language because of Sassari's historic ties with Tuscany and Corsica...
, Algherese, Tabarchino - History of SardiniaHistory of SardiniaArchaeological evidence of prehistoric human settlement on Sardinia island is present in the form of the nuraghe which dot the land. The recorded history of Sardinia begins with its contacts with the various people who sought to dominate western Mediterranean trade in Classical Antiquity: the...
- Tourist destinations of SardiniaTourist destinations of SardiniaThis is a list of the most famous tourist destinations of Sardinia.Minor islands are included from Olbia, clockwise — industrial sites are not included.-Main towns:*Cagliari*Sassari*Olbia*Alghero*Nuoro*Oristano*Porto Torres-Other locations:...
- Sardinian peopleSardinian peopleThe Sardinian people or Sardinians are the people from or with origins in the island of Sardinia , in the Mediterranean sea, which forms part of southern Europe.-Origin and influences:...
- List of Sardinians
- List of rulers of Sardinia
- List of archaeological and artistic sites of Sardinia
- Tavolara IslandTavolara IslandTavolara is a small island off the northeast coast of Sardinia, Italy. The island is a limestone massif 5 kilometres long and 1 kilometre wide, with steep cliffs except at its ends. Its highest point, Monte Cannone, is 565 metres above sea level. A cove and beach can be found at each end of the...
, an island off Olbia, Sardinia, which is a self-proclaimed micronationMicronationMicronations, sometimes also referred to as model countries and new country projects, are entities that claim to be independent nations or states but which are not recognized by world governments or major international organizations... - Basilica di SaccargiaBasilica di SaccargiaThe façade.|thumb|250pxThe Basilica della Santissima Trinità di Saccargia is a church in the comune of Codrongianos, northern Sardinia, Italy. It is the most important Romanesque site in the island...
- Sea and SardiniaSea and SardiniaSea and Sardinia is a travel book by the English writer D. H. Lawrence. It describes a brief excursion undertaken by Lawrence and Frieda, his wife aka Queen Bee, from Taormina in Sicily to the interior of Sardinia. They visited Cagliari, Mandas, Sorgono, and Nuoro...
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) excerpt and text search
- The Island of the Ancients: The Secrets of Sardinia's Centenarians by Ben Hills (2008)
- The Rough Guide to Sardinia (Rough Guide Travel Guides) by Robert Andrews (2007) excerpt and text search
- Dyson, Stephen L. and Robert J. Rowland, ed. Archaeology and History in Sardinia from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages: Shepherds, Sailors, and Conquerors (2007)
- 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 SardiniaSea and SardiniaSea and Sardinia is a travel book by the English writer D. H. Lawrence. It describes a brief excursion undertaken by Lawrence and Frieda, his wife aka Queen Bee, from Taormina in Sicily to the interior of Sardinia. They visited Cagliari, Mandas, Sorgono, and Nuoro...
(1921)
External links
- Gorropu.info - Official website of the most spectacular canyon in Europe
- Official Sardinia Tourism website in English
- Official regional website in Italian
- History of the Archipelago de La Maddalena
- Digital Library of Sardinia Autonomous Region
- Technical information and photos about Sardinian Lighthouses
- A travel between tourism history and archeology with more than 3500 photos
- Vacation rentals at Sardinia website
- A travelogue of Sardinia