Neoclassical architecture

The process of alignment with the dominant trends in the environments of Italian artistic culture intensified in the 19th century with the work of architects who were native to the island but trained in Turin, aware of the neoclassical forms that were spreading in Europe.

Above all, the forced stay of the Savoy court in Cagliari, following Napoleonic exploits, had to determine the orientation of local taste towards the new trends emanating from European capitals, in line with the changed needs of the ruling classes, embodied by the work of architects.

Giuseppe Cominotti provides the drawings for the Cagliari Civic Theater (1831-32) and the projects for the chaplain of San Luigi Gonzaga in the cathedral of Oristano (1829-37), which will house the marble furniture created by the sculptor Andrea Galassi. Antonio Cano oversees the renovation of the Franciscan church of Santa Maria di Betlem in Sassari (1829-34) and for the construction of the cathedral of Santa Maria della Neve in Nuoro (1835-40).

The real protagonist of the 19th century in Sardinia, however, is the Cagliari architect Gaetano Cima who, in line with the most up-to-date theories of the time and supported by rigorous pragmatism, will contribute a lot to giving functionality and a modern face to the capital and other Sardinian centers. In the religious field, it is worth mentioning the canonically neoclassical domed central plan of the churches of Santa Maria Assunta in Guasila (1839-52) and of San Francesco in Oristano (1841-47). In that of civil construction, the model of the central organism was re-proposed by him in an environment representing the Villa Santa Maria in Pula (1838), but functionalism emerged, almost an advance of twentieth-century rationalism, which distinguishes the San Giovanni di Dio hospital in Cagliari (1844-48): with its beam structure, the building qualifies the Cima experience in perfect harmony with similar and contemporary experiences in the international field.

Update

25/9/2023 - 17:14