The decoration of public buildings

Sassari, Palazzo della Provincia, o palazzo Sciuti.

Starting in 1870, as a result of the geographic-administrative reorganization of the State, the image of provincial buildings, as decentralized seats of authority, assumed significant importance. In fact, they house offices, meeting and reception rooms, and the prefect's home, a direct emanation from the central government.

The political prestige of the institution is also manifested in the attention paid to the functionality and decoration of the provincial palaces, whose decorative programs of the representative rooms, with illustrative themes related to the local histories of each region, reveal a single global design aimed at glorifying the State illuminated by the Savoy monarchy. It cannot therefore be ruled out that the iconographic programs established at local headquarters should receive approval from the government of Rome.

Cagliari is identified as the seat of the Province, as a traditional symbol of sovereignty, the Royal Palace, for centuries the residence of the Spanish viceroys first, then Piedmontese, and of the royal family itself.

In Sassari, an appropriate headquarters were built from scratch in an area of urban expansion ceded by the Municipality in 1872, on which within four years, on a design by the engineer Eugenio Sironi, the Palazzo della Provincia was built, whose front overlooks one of the sides of the vast Piazza d'Italia.

The stuccos of the façade and the interiors are by Galli; the frescoes on the main floor, executed starting in 1887, are by Dancardi and Dechiffer, while the “triumphal entry of Giommaria Angioy to Sassari”, on the ceiling of the Council Hall, is entrusted, with a selection through a national competition, to Giuseppe Sciuti.

Update

13/9/2023 - 17:32