Cagliari, “Alberto Riva” elementary schools

The school building closes the long western side of Piazza Garibaldi, close to the convent of San Domenico, and opens onto a vast space arranged with public green spaces, which underlines its monumental appearance due to the presence of an embankment connected by stairways.
Designed by the engineer Bartolomeo Ravenna with some variants by the engineer Lorenzo Leone that occurred during construction, it began in 1912, but finished only around 1930 in the part overlooking Via XXIV Maggio, opened to connect Piazza Garibaldi with Piazza San Domenico above, and, on the opposite side, along Via Bosa.
Named after the 18-year-old Alberto Riva Villasanta, who died last at the end of the First World War, the school marriage, which served the Villanova district, suffered very serious damage with the bombings of 1943, especially in the central part restored after the war.
The building is part of the elementary schools built in the various districts of Cagliari and is part of the group of buildings inspired by historicism and more precisely with references to the language of the Middle Ages and the fifteenth century, sometimes made more current with a modernist interpretation of some decorative parts.
The long façade has a large central front flanked by two slightly protruding bodies that continue in the side wings along the XXIV Maggio and Bosa streets, respectively. The building, made of exposed terracotta, is based on a Serrenti stone base with the two main entrances covered with limestone. Large windows with one, two or three lights mark the three floors, with rounded arches in the first two and lowered in the last, to which are added sharp-arched frames with alternate rhythms. A protruding toothed frame completes the building, doubling in the two front walls.

Bibliography
E. Gessa Maggipinto-M. Vincis, “Archival Sources”, in Cagliari Historic Districts. Villanova, Cinisello Balsamo, A. Pizzi, 1991, p. 183;
F. Masala, “The neighborhood and its history”, in Cagliari Historic Districts. Villanova, Cinisello Balsamo, A. Pizzi, 1991, pp. 58, 74-75;
M. Pintus, “Architectures”, in Cagliari Historic Districts. Stampace, Cinisello Balsamo, A. Pizzi, 1995, pp. 139-140; G. Loddo, Cagliari.
Architecture from 1900 to 1945, Cagliari, Coedisar, 1999, p. 88;
F. Masala, Architecture from the Unification of Italy to the End of the 20th Century. Nuoro, Ilisso, 2001, sheet 22.