Cagliari, San Michele Castle

From the top of the homonymous tuff hill, the castle of San Michele was the watchful sentinel of the access road from the Campidan hinterland to the town of Cagliari, in particular of the lagoon area of Santa Gilla, where the sites of the ancient Phoenician-Punic, Roman, Byzantine and Upper Judicial settlement were attested.
The panoramic position of the castle is accompanied by its historical importance, qualifying it as one of the most significant monuments in the city of Cagliari, thanks also to its recent destination as a museum container, used in particular for temporary exhibitions on archaeological or historical-artistic themes.
Tradition has it that the castle was built in the 12th century and reinforced in the 13th century, in defense of the capital of the Kingdom of Cagliari, Santa Igia. In 1324, King James II the Just granted one of his nobles, Berengario Carròs, the villa of Sinnai in fief, with the promise by Carròs to build the castle of San Michele with the money from the donation. Archival documents show how Carròs even stripped the church of San Saturnino in Cagliari to embellish his residences; among these there was probably also the castle of San Michele, home of the Carròs family until the 16th century.
The castle today has three corner towers with a square plan, connected by partly ruined walls; the entire structure is made of limestone from the Bonaria quarries. The oldest part consists of the N/E and S/E towers, built with perfectly square medium-sized ashlars, while the S/O tower, erected at a later stage, is built with a coarser masonry technique, with the use of summarily worked mixed stone.
The entrance to the castle, like the entire fortification, is preceded by a moat that could be overcome by means of a drawbridge, of which traces can be found in the grooves at one of the entrances. The whole set rises on a strongly sloping shoe plinth, made of ashlar.
On the O side of the castle you can see the traces of two side-by-side entrances, corresponding to a building with two aisles, traditionally called the “oratory of Saint Michael the Archangel” and which serves as the castle chapel. The entire complex built on the hill is of uncertain chronology: the date of construction of the castle is doubtful, just as it is not clear if the church now incorporated into the structure had been built before or at the same time as San Michele.

History of studies
The studies on the castle are numerous: they start from the mention in the “Guide” by Canon Giovanni Spano (1861) and pass through the article published by Foiso Fois in 1976 and through the monographic study conducted by Giuseppe Spiga in 1983. Also worth mentioning is the volume by Giovanni Anedda (1984), to arrive at the contribution of Foiso Fois in the volume “Castles of Medieval Sardinia”, from 1992, and the summary sheet by Roberto Coroneo (1993). For the purpose of understanding the current state of the monument, the 1995 volume entitled “The rediscovered castle: the castle and the hill of San Michele” is of special interest, with a series of contributions related to restoration work.

Bibliography
G. Spano, Guida della città e dintorni di Cagliari, Cagliari, A. Timon, 1861, pp. 366-367;
R. Carta Raspi, Castelli medioevali di Sardegna, Cagliari, 1933, p. 34;
F. Fois, "Il castello di San Michele", in Almanacco di Cagliari, 1976, senza pagine;
G. Spiga, Il castello di San Michele sentinella di Santa Igia?, Pisa, 1983;
G. Anedda, Il castello di San Michele a Cagliari, Cagliari, 1984;
F. Fois, Castelli della Sardegna medioevale, a cura di B. Fois, Cinisello Balsamo, Amilcare Pizzi, 1992, pp. 41-47;
R. Coroneo, Architettura romanica dalla metà del Mille al primo '300, collana "Storia dell'arte in Sardegna", Nuoro, Ilisso, 1993, sch. 172;
Il castello ritrovato: il castello e il colle di San Michele, Cagliari, 1995;
A.M. Colavitti-C. Tronchetti, Guida archeologica di Cagliari, collana "Sardegna archeologica. Guide e itinerari", Sassari, Carlo Delfino, 2003, pp. 43-44;
G. Serreli, Tutti i castelli dei quattro regni, "Darwin. Quaderni", n. 1 (luglio-agosto 2006), pp. 104-109.

Tag

Structure category: Monument or Monumental Complex

Content type: Fortified architecture

Usability: Open

Province: Cagliari

Common: Cagliari

Macro Territorial Area: South Sardinia

POSTAL CODE: 09121

Address: via Giovanni Cinquini, s.n.c

Telephone: +39 070 15240479

E-mail: castellosanmichele@orientare.it

Facebook: www.facebook.com/castellosanmichelecagliari

Information on tickets and access: There is currently no information available on the opening hours and on the categories of users for which the reduced ticket is provided, it is advisable to contact the structure in advance to plan the visit.

Access mode: For a fee

Tickets :