Cagliari, Jesuit College

The complex is in the historic district of Castello.
Built several times, the complex consists of two bodies united by a porch that straddles via the Court of Appeal. The first, dating back to around 1661, without a real façade, is included between the churches of Santa Croce and the Sacro Monte di Pietà. The second body, expanded by the Piedmontese architect Antonio Felice De Vincenti between 1725 and 1773, was joined to the first through the construction of a porch finished in 1725, even if inside the building work continued for decades.
Passed to state property in 1773 after the suppression of the Society of Jesus, the complex was used for different functions, while in 1809 the church was ceded to the Mauritian Order. Around 1775, on the ground floor of the oldest nucleus, the Royal Printing House was established, which remained active until 1848. The intervention of the military engineer De la Marche modified the porch, which was closed inside on the side parallel to the road. Canon Giovanni Spano recalls that a foundry was also installed there for printed characters; later, the same rooms housed the Cassa di Risparmio and the Monte di Pietà, later the Institute of Psychiatry, the University Music Center and the University Sports Center. The most recent part of the complex housed the Royal Archives, between 1776 and 1849. Furthermore, after hosting the Supreme Magistrate at the Royal Audience, it became the seat of the Court of Appeal, which remained there until 1940, the year in which it was transferred to the new Palace of Justice. In 1941, the University of Cagliari bought the premises that first housed the Faculty of Letters and Teaching and then the Institute of Design of the Faculty of Engineering.
The porch is divided into eleven cross-vaulted bays separated by undersections that rest on hanging capitals. Through a simple door, surmounted by a window, you can access the bright courtyard used as a garden. On the smaller sides there are two porches with round arches supported by Doric pillars; the rectangular bays are crisscrossed. The most important environment is the old refectory of the College, a vast rectangular room with a barrel roof.
The most recent building has a grand two-level atrium that opens onto a courtyard bordering the Via Stretta. The large space is architecturally defined by ten cruises arranged in double rows resting on grooved and bandaged columns, similar to those of Palazzo Carignano in Turin. The atrium has a nice portal and windows on Via Corte d'Apello, walled up in later times. On the first floor there are long barrel-vaulted ambulances. A large room with twentieth-century paintings of allegories of the arts is of particular interest. The second floor, heavily modified, summarizes the pattern of the first.

History of studies
The College is the subject of a summary fact sheet in Salvatore Naitza's volume on late seventeenth-century and purist architecture (1992).

Bibliography
G. Spano, Guide to the city and surroundings of Cagliari, Cagliari, Timon, 1861;
M. Cabras, “The works of De Vincenti and the first Piedmontese military engineers in Sardinia in the period 1720-1745", in Proceedings of the XIII Congress on the History of Architecture. Sardinia, Rome, 1966;
17th and 18th century art and culture in Sardinia. Proceedings of the national conference, curated by T.K. Kirova, Naples, Italian Scientific Editions, 1984;
S. Naitza, Architecture from the late 17th century to purist classicism. Nuoro, Ilisso, 1992, sheet 16;
T. Kirova-D. Fiorino, The religious architecture of the Baroque in Sardinia, Cagliari, Aipsa, 2002.