Arborea, Garden of Villa Dolcetta

Villa Dolcetta garden. Photo by Angela Nieddu, 2025, from Catalogo BBCC

Villa Dolcetta was built in 1930 and is one of the main buildings representing the town dating back to a period between 1928 and 1933 and partly located around the square dedicated to a Vittorio Emanuele III, today Piazza Maria Ausiliatrice. All the buildings of this early period, with the exception of the church, were designed by Carlo Avanzini (1882-1932), including the Villa Dolcetta, also known as the “President's Villa”. It was the residence of the president of the Sardinian Reclamation Society, engineer Giulio Dolcetta. Villa and garden are located on a plot of land between Corso Roma, Via San Domenico Savio and Via Santa Chiara. It has two entrances and develops around the architectural complex, consisting of the villa and its relevance. It is divided into two distinct green spaces. The front part, designed according to an eclectic taste, has irregular flower beds with shrubs, trees and specimens of phyllyrea shaped into rounded shapes. The space behind it is a green area once used as a vegetable garden, now uncultivated. The tree and shrub species present are grevillea, camphor, evergreen magnolia, maritime pine, carob, olive tree, oleander, trunk of happiness and phyllyrea. At the back of the villa there is a property used as a stable, garage, warehouses and servants' rooms, clearly inspired by rural Po Valley architecture.

Interesting aspects
The garden retains its original configuration, two separate areas are still distinguishable: the orderly and clean representation space divided between the voids of the lawn and the full of trees and shrubs.