Cagliari, San Pancrazio Space

The multipurpose cultural complex “Citadel of Museums” is located at the northwest end of the Castello district, in an area already used as a military fortress in the 14th century, converted at the beginning of the 19th century into a Royal Arsenal. In 1870 it became a Military District, and, finally, it was half destroyed during the aerial bombing suffered by the city in 1943.
The San Pancrazio Space is one of the exhibition venues of the National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari. Built into the structures of the bastion of San Pancrazio, it is now incorporated into the Citadel of Museums.
It houses the collection of stone materials and coats of arms, which arrived at the Museum through acquisitions from private collections, donations, fortuitous discoveries and recoveries during demolitions or restorations. The finds, which date back to the 13th century, tell the urban and social evolution of the city of Cagliari.
The bastion of San Pancrazio was built by order of the viceroy Don Joan Dusay between 1501 and 1503, in order to protect the north gate of Cagliari from frontal artillery fire. This was the weak point of the fortification of the Castello district, as it lacked cliffs and escarpments to discourage possible sieges.
The coat of arms carved on the lintel of the front door bears the viceroy's regalia, the three mullet.
The rapid evolution of military techniques and firearms soon made the conception of this defensive system outdated. Its construction characteristics — the structure carved into the rock, the imfunctional slits, the absence of shoe walls and gunboats — aroused criticism from the military engineers of the time.
From the end of the 17th century, the bastion underwent various changes. First, the door of Altamira was opened, interrupting the direct passage from the courtyard of the tower of San Pancrazio to the interior of the bastion. Later, its interior was adapted to a military prison and in 1824 it became the hospital for prison inmates.
In 1897, the complex was abandoned by the prison administration to pass to the care of the Ministry of Education, Fine Arts branch. For many years it was used as a repository of materials from the excavations of the Archaeological Superintendence until the restorations of the 90s, which allowed it to be used as an exhibition venue.

History of studies
From the early twentieth century, on the initiative of the Regional Office for the Conservation of Monuments of Sardinia and the engineer Dionigi Scano, works were started to restore and redevelop the Tower and its military appliances. The subsequent interventions, conducted first by Raffaelo Delogu and later by the architects Libero cecchini and Piero Gazzola, were oriented towards the musealization of the entire surrounding area. The restoration work that led to the effective use of the San Pancrazio Space (1986-2006) was carried out by the then Superintendence of the BAAAS of Cagliari.

Bibliography
P. Gazzola-L. Cecchini, The Museum Citadel of Sardinia in Cagliari, Cagliari University, Lonigo, 1981;
T.K. Kirova, The Culture of Restoration, Historic Neighborhoods in Cagliari. Castello, Cinisello Balsamo, A. Pizzi, 1985, pp. 164, 170-171;
P. Corona, The Citadel of Cagliari Museums: evolutionary analysis of a defensive system, in Cagliari. Homage to a city, Oristano, S'Alvure, 1990, pp. 103-145;
Pirinu A., Form and design of the Cagliari stronghold in the period 1552-1578. The arrival of specialists Rocco Capellino and Paleari Fratino, in Identity and Borders. Politics, Economy and Society in the Mediterranean (XIV-XVII Century), Milan, Franco Angeli, 2015, p. 217;
Looking North: Didactic Contributions in the Study of the San Pancrazio Area, in Towards an Atlas of the Defensive Systems of Sardinia, edited by D.R. Fiorino and M. Pintus, Naples, Giannini publisher, 2015;
P. Sanjust — G. Monni, The Citadel of Museums in Cagliari (R. Fagnoni, E. Bianchini, 1949-1954), in The Construction of Architecture, Themes and Works of the Italian Postwar Period, Rome,, 2016, pp. 58 -65.

Tag

Structure category: museum, gallery and/or collection

Content type: Archaeology

Usability: Occasional opening

Province: Cagliari

Common: Cagliari

Macro Territorial Area: South Sardinia

POSTAL CODE: 09124

Address: piazza Arsenale, 1

Telephone: +39 070 655911

E-mail: man-ca.prenotazioni@cultura.gov.it man-ca@cultura.gov.it

Website: museinazionalicagliari.cultura.gov.it/musei/san-pancrazio/?Category

Facebook: it-it.facebook.com/MuseoArcheoCA

Instagram: www.instagram.com/museoarcheoca

Information on tickets and access: The opening to the public of the San Pancrazio Space is occasional. Information on its usability will be available from time to time by contacting the ticket office of the National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari. When it can be visited, the cost of your visit is included in the price of the ticket for the National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari, which can also be purchased online by registering on the following web page.

Access mode: For a fee

Tickets :

Integer : 9 €, grownups, .

Reduced : 4.5 €, , .

Reduced : 2 €, young people in the EU between 18 and 25 years old, .

Freeware : 0 €, minors up to 18 years old, people with disabilities and caregivers, MiC staff, I.C.O.M. members, licensed EU tourist guides, groups of students from public and private schools in the EU, accompanied by their teachers, upon reservation, teachers and students of university courses from the following faculties: architecture, conservation of cultural heritage, education sciences or letters and philosophy with an archaeological or historical-artistic orientation, journalists through the exhibition of documents proving the professional activity carried out, personal Italian school teacher with a certificate issued by the educational institution, soldiers of the Cultural Heritage Protection Unit, .

Services information: Reservations are required for guided tours.

Update

15/7/2024 - 09:35

Services

Guided tours