Sa Die de sa Sardigna

Sa Die de sa Sardigna is the festival of the Sardinian people that commemorates the so-called “Sardinian Vespers”, that is, the popular uprising of April 28, 1794 with which the Piedmontese and the Viceroy Balbiano moved away from Cagliari following the refusal of the Turin government to satisfy the requests of the island owner of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

The Sardinians were asking that part of the civil and military jobs be reserved for them and greater autonomy with respect to the decisions of the local ruling class. The Piedmontese government refused to accept any request, so the urban bourgeoisie, with the help of the rest of the population, unleashed the insurrectional movement.

The rebellion movement had already begun in the eighties of the eighteenth century and had continued in the nineties, affecting the whole island. The reasons were both political and economic.

The reason for popular discontent was also due to the fact that Sardinia had been involved in the revolutionary French war against European states and therefore against Piedmont. In 1793, a French fleet had tried to seize the island, landing in Carloforte and then insisting on Cagliari. The Sardinians, however, resisted by all means, in defense of their land and of the Piedmontese who then dominated Sardinia. This resistance to the French had thrilled the spirits, so recognition and reward were expected from the Savoy government for its loyalty to the Crown.

The spark that triggered the dispute was the arrest ordered by the viceroy of two leaders of the patriotic party, the Cagliari lawyers Vincenzo Cabras and Efisio Pintor. We are precisely on April 28, 1794: the angry population decided to remove Viceroy Balbiano and all the Piedmontese from the city, who in the month of May of that year were forcibly embarked and sent back to their region. Encouraged by Cagliari's events, the inhabitants of Alghero and Sassari did the same.

Update

24/4/2024 - 17:17