Sassari, Garden of the Rizzeddu Psychiatric Hospital

Garden of the Rizzeddu Psychiatric Hospital. Photo by Angela Nieddu, 2025, from Catalogo BBCC

The Rizzeddu complex was founded as a Provincial Psychiatric Hospital. The original nucleus, completed in 1904 on a project attributed to the engineer Domenico Cordella, was organized according to a layout of pavilions immersed in a large fenced green area and included the management building, the church, the service rooms and the psychiatric wards. Expanded starting in 1938 with new buildings, the complex presents an architectural language between Umbertino and Liberty. Once the mental hospital function has been abandoned, it now houses health and administrative functions and constitutes an important testimony of the hospital architecture of the early twentieth century in Sassari. The green area, present since the original layout as an integral part of the pavilion system, is divided into two main green spaces, distinguished by morphological and functional characteristics. The first space consists of open ornamental areas with a mixed shape, distributed mainly between and around the pavilions and the church. These are green spaces of relationship, partly organized and partly freer, characterized by the alternation of areas with denser vegetation and areas with sparse vegetation or grass, in close connection with internal paths and with the building system. The second space is configured as a production area, identifiable in an olive grove, located in the northwestern portion of the complex. Along the avenues there are rows of hackberry and rows of olive trees.

Interesting aspects
The composition of the green is closely related to the system of pavilions of the former Rizzeddu Psychiatric Hospital. The areas between the buildings constitute places of rest and relationship, in which the green assumes a shading role and helps to create a perceptive game between full and empty spaces. The vegetation is varied, especially in the central areas of the complex, while in some places the tree rows accompany the user along the paths.