Macomer, Town Hall

The town of Macomer is located in an extremely favorable position on the border between Sassari, Oristano and Nuoro. It is the point of convergence between the Porto Torres-Cagliari railway line of the State Railways and the Macomer-Nuoro line of the Sardinia Railways; the two railway stations located one opposite the other on both sides of the main road are characteristic. Archaeological emergencies in the area are very important.
In 1810, the construction of the first rolling road in Sardinia began with Macomer, which repeated the route of the ancient Roman road from Porto Torres to Cagliari. It soon remained unfinished in Fordongianus and resumed only after ten years, while the railroad had to wait until 1880, when the entire Monti-Cagliari trunk was inaugurated with two trains that met in Macomer. With the road trunk from Bosa to Nuoro and the parallel narrow-gauge railway (1888), both passing through Macomer, the city became the hub of the productive exchanges of the entire island and from 1897 it was able to develop, thanks to the very strong demand from the continent and the negligible price paid to island producers, its most congenious industry, the dairy industry, quickly becoming the capital of Sardinian cheese. The result was a process of growth for the city, which since 1961, thanks to the recognition of its new production structure as an industrial area of regional interest, has accelerated sharply, accompanied by the emergence of additional initiatives in the food and building materials sectors and by a rapid expansion of construction.
The oldest town is located along the axis formed by Corso Umberto I, the “road” traced at the end of the nineteenth century, rectifying the previous urban structure, as an extension of the city's SS 129. At the beginning, the parish church of San Pantaleo stands there, with an elegant appearance mainly due to interventions from the first half of the seventeenth century; carried out by Sardinian workers, they reproduce evident Gothic-Catalan models, in particular, in the façade (1607) with a gable portal and vulcanite pilasters. The previous architectural structure is documented by the bell tower with a catton-shaped cusp, built in 1574 by Michele Puig, and inside by the last chapel d. (1584), with an opening with ogival arches with carved capitals and a vaulted vault with gemstone ribs.
The course leads to Piazzetta Garibaldi, on which the Town Hall overlooks, one of the most representative examples of the architectural operation carried out, at the end of the nineteenth century, to give the city a new urban scene. It is characterized by two Doric columns open on the edge of the façade and consists of two floors simply marked by openings.
From the square, a series of twisted alleys lead into the historic district of Santa Croce, a nucleus of ancient formation arranged in the Middle Ages around a castle (or fortified residence) that was destroyed in 1478; it is composed of a building fabric characterized by the survival of Gothic-Catalan architectural details, especially portals and windows with volcanite decorations from local tombstones. On the edge of the district, the church of Santa Croce, rebuilt in the 17th century on a pre-existing building and restored in 1981, overlooks the popular festival of “Sa Tuva”, which culminates in a large bonfire), the church of Santa Croce, rebuilt in the 17th century on a pre-existing building and restored in 1981; turning to the house in front, you can visit the airy interior with three naves on arches in the middle of the center and stocky pillars.

History of studies
A review of studies can be found in the bibliography relating to the fact sheet in the volume of the “History of Art in Sardinia” on nineteenth-century architecture (2001).

Bibliography
G. Mura, Macomer, series “Countries and Cities of Sardinia”, Cagliari, 1999;
F. Masala, Architecture from the Unification of Italy to the end of the 20th century. Nuoro, Ilisso, 2001, sheet 8.