Arborea, Gardens of Piazza Maria Ausiliatrice

Gardens in Piazza Maria Ausiliatrice. Photo by Angela Nieddu, 2025, from Catalogo BBCC

The construction of the garden in Piazza Maria Ausiliatrice can be placed approximately between 1928 and 1933, a period characterized by an eclectic architectural language, during which the most representative buildings of Arborea were built arranged around the rectangular square, mostly designed by the engineer Carlo Avanzini. Already in 1935, the garden essentially presented its current design characterized by the arrangement of the hedges inside the central flower beds, the shape of the bundles symbolic of the regime. The garden has a planimetric layout characterized by a symmetrical composition with respect to the main longitudinal path. At the center of the composition is the war memorial, exactly at the intersection between the two main axes. A distinctive element of the structure is the row of magnolias that draw the longitudinal path, while four trees mark the transverse entrances to the garden: two ficuses positioned to the north and two magnolias to the south. The alternation between the voids of the lawn and the full ones determined by the verticality of the trees, helps to define the spatiality of the garden, highlighting in particular the two ficus that emerge visually in terms of size and position. An additional secondary path, semicircular in shape, cuts the westernmost part of the rectangle, adding articulation to the design. The most common botanical species are the evergreen magnolia, arranged in rows, the pitosphorus and evergreen spindle hedges of various irregular geometric shapes, the magnolioid ficus, two large trees, and the grevillea.

Aspects of interest
The garden of Piazza Maria Ausiliatrice was born as a central and scenographic element within an urban project developed during the fascist twenty years for the town of Arborea, at the time called Mussolinia. The center originated as a founding city, with a representative and administrative role within the project to reclaim the Terralba area. The garden stands as a green space surrounded by some of the most representative buildings of the historic city that are still in use and well preserved.