Alghero, Surigheddu Farm Park

Surigheddu Farm Park. Photo by Angela Nieddu, 2025, from Catalogo BBCC.

The Surigheddu farm originated in the second half of the 19th century with the acquisition of the estate by the Italian Agricultural Cooperative on October 6, 1897, and was consolidated in the early 20th century through land clearing and the construction of the main productive and residential structures (about 1899-1900). It is located in the municipal territory of Alghero, it constitutes a historic agro-productive complex organized in a rural hamlet, now partly abandoned and in a state of neglect, with buildings and agricultural spaces no longer used. A portion of the complex, including the manor house and some related agricultural land, is currently under management at the University of Sassari, which carries out agricultural research and experimentation, in particular in the field of conservation and enhancement of biodiversity. The rest of the company has conditions of functional degradation and partial compromise of the original buildings and agricultural arrangements, while keeping legible the historical layout of the compendium and the spatial relationships between residences, production structures, internal roads and cultivated fields. The farm consisted of a villa, a church and a complex of buildings functional to the farm. There is an artificial reservoir managed by the Water Authority of Sardinia (ENAS), located to the southeast of the area. The area can be divided into three macro-areas. The first includes the area around the complex of buildings that preserves traces of tree species ordered between one building and another. The second, managed by the University of Sassari, is the only part used and is dedicated to experimentation in the field of agro-industry. It can be divided into two green spaces, the first dedicated to research on crops for food use on site, the second to ornamental crops dedicated to the management of the tree species present around the villa. The third macro-area occupies the land of the original farm, now used mostly as pasture, especially in the west. Approximately it can be divided into two green spaces: clearing, with spaces free of vegetation and forest.

Interesting aspects
Testimony of a typical layout of organized rural villages with the complex of buildings located in a central position with respect to the estate. It offers an area dedicated to experimental research used by the Sassari Faculty of Agriculture.