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The Silk Route - World Travel: Giant of Mont'e Prama,Archaeological Museum, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy

Sardinia: Cagliari
May 2015

Castello Marina Chiesa di San Sepolcro
Sardinia: Carthaginian Necklace


Cagliari is home to an excellent archaeological museum and countless places to enjoy good food and wine.

Related pages:
Alghero & North West
Oristano
Cagliari
Su Nuraxi, Nora, Montessu

Castello

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Buildings in front of the cathedral.
Cagliari
A view over Cagliari from the Castello walls, on the left the inner open side of Torre dell'Elefante can be seen.

 

Long the island's capital Cagliari has remnants of two thousand years of history either on the streets or in its museums. The old citadel, now the Castello quarter, is high on a hill with the cathedral and city offices at the summit and surrounded by a defensive wall.

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A view over Cagliari from Castello.
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Torre dell'Elefante

 

On the west side is the Torre dell'Elefante which was built in 1307 and, like the defensive walls, presents a sheer face to attackers.

 

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Torre dell'Elefante
Note the raised portcullis inside.
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The internal portcullis can still be seen seated in its grooves at the centre of the interior of the gate above the road leading into Castello. A raised, spiked gate is also still in place at the entrance from the lower city. The inward side of the tower is open.

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Torre dell'Elefante and its raised outer gate.
Cagliari cathedral
St. Michael casting devils into the flames of hell, Cagliari cathedral.
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Cagliari cathedral
Cagliari cathedral.

The civic and ecclesiastical buildings sit among a warren of narrow alleyways threading between tall buildings within the walls.

Cagliari cathedral
Cagliari cathedral.

The cathedral was originally built in the thirteenth century but has undergone much remodelling. The facade is a twentieth century take on a typical arcaded Pisan Romanesque style and the interior, a mixture of Gothic and Baroque, does nothing for me at all, though there are some lovely 12th century carved marble lions and an impressive carving of St Michael casting devils into hell.

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Small bronze Nuraghic figure of a chieftain; 9th - 8th c BC.

The Archaeological Museum is not too far from the cathedral and has some very interesting exhibits. I particularly liked the small bronze Nuraghic figures, mostly military in nature, and the little boats, indicative of the seafaring nature of the people, which may have been used as sanctuary lamps.

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Statue of the Egyptian god Bes from the Roman period, found at Santa Gilla.
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Small bronze sanctuary lamp(?) in the shape of a boat with an antlered deer at the prow.
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A beautiful and intriguing Carthaginian glass necklace.
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Carthaginian demon mask, 6th c BC, used in transformation rituals such as coming of age.

 

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Nuraghic heroic warrior with four eyes and four arms.
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Beautiful cruciform-style small marble goddess, Turriga.
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Small marble goddess, Polu.
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Statue of an archer.
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Giants of Mont'e Prama.
Three statues and a model of a nuraghe.
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Detail from statue of an archer.
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Detail from statue of a warrior - a loin cloth?

There are some magnificent remnants of large Nuraghic stone statues, the Giants of Mont'e Prama, discovered in 1974 along with models of nuraghe.

Several statues have been assembled from the fragments of over forty that were found. They stand up to two metres tall and include archers, warriors and boxers.

There is a statue of an archer with some fine carved detail.

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Detail from statue of an archer.

 

The heads with their dual concentric circle eyes are particularly arresting. These sculptures are Nuraghic but their exact age is unknown, certainly hundreds of years before the birth of Christ.

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Statue of a warrior.
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Two boxers.

 

Marina

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Cagliari

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An excellent salt-encrusted fish at Martinelli's.
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Inu Enoteca

 

The area down to the harbour south of Castello is a maze of narrow streets, bounded by a couple of major roads: the Via Roma along the harbour and the Largo Carlo Felice on the west side heading north. It has many restaurants, cafés and bars, most with tables on the pavements and piazzas and we had some great food and wine here, notably in Inu Enoteca and Sapori di Sardegna.

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A great selection of dried meat, salami, cheese and wine at Inu Enoteca.
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Fabulous Sardinian meats and cheeses at Sapori di Sardegna with a first rate Cannonau.

 

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Sapori di Sardegna

 

 

Sapori di Sardegna is a fabulous delicatessen selling Sardinian food, but they will also prepare a fantastic meat and cheese lunch for you. It was served with a fig "jam" and two glasses of Mamuthone Cannonau di Sardegna - a fabulous mouth-filling red. If you want to buy meats or cheeses they will vacuum-pack them for the trip home.

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Sapori di Sardegna
Cagliari
Sapori di Sardegna

 

Chiesa di San Sepolcro

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Chiesa di San Sepolcro

The church is renowned for the 17th century crypt and its images of Death but also has a rare example of an early baptismal font. This one dates from the fourth century and is a simple pit carved from the rock with steps leading down - baptism would have involved full immersion.

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4th century baptismal font.
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"Nemini parco" - no-one is spared - on the ceiling of the first room.

Steps lead down from the body of the church to a fair-sized barrel-vaulted room with a second room off to the side.

The larger room is painted in black and white with a great image of Death on the ceiling.

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The main room of the crypt.
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The secondary room.
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The second room is smaller, also with a vaulted ceiling, and has wonderful stone skull and crossbones sculptures.

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