Alghero, Giuseppe Manno Public Gardens

Giuseppe Manno Public Gardens. Photo by Angela Nieddu, 2025, from the BBCC Catalogue.

The Giuseppe Manno Public Gardens are located in the eighteenth-century expansion belt of the city. Their construction is part of the larger process of urban opening and reorganization following the loss of the defensive role of the walls, gradually dismantled starting in 1867. During the twentieth century, it was consolidated as one of the city's main public green spaces, maintaining an ornamental layout with irregular flower beds and hierarchical paths, also confirmed by the most recent redevelopment interventions. Next to the Giuseppe Manno Gardens is the garden now called Lepanto-Cecchini, which has been given an independent name in recent times - although it has a morphological continuity with it. The green space is configured as a fenced ornamental garden, characterized by a design of irregular flower beds distributed evenly and connected by a hierarchical system of paths. At the center of the plant there is a large circular paved area with a brick seat from which there are four main avenues arranged radially at the entrances located at the corners of the garden. The garden named after Giuseppe Manno houses the monument dedicated to him, a work by Pietro Canonica dated 1894, located near the entrance on Via Vittorio Emanuele II. The space also has two circular areas equipped with games for children and for physical exercise. The plant structure is dominated by the presence of oak, a species used both in rows along the paths and in scattered specimens, contributing to the creation of a shady and recognizable environment. The flower beds house an articulated shrub component, located in particular in the central part of the garden and consisting of species typical of the Mediterranean scrub, among which, in addition to oak, lavender, strawberry tree, myrtle, helichrysum and cistus stand out.

Aspects of interest
The homogeneous distribution of the tree component, consisting of essences of significant height, creates a shaded and visually continuous environment. The shrub component, concentrated in central cores, defines a fine and evergreen plant texture, with scalar blooms that give the space seasonal chromatic and aromatic qualities. The garden consists of a central paved space from which the network of radial paths is organized that defines the distribution of ornamental flower beds and rest areas. The play equipment, the monument and the stone sculptures are integrated into the distribution plot, contributing to the functional distinction of spaces without altering their overall layout.