Cagliari Underground
Deep beneath the city of Cagliari lies a hidden history. Sitting under the layers of a modern city are tunnels and caves and crypts and ruins. Centuries of stories, myths and legends, carved into the limestone.
We took a tour of just three of these mysterious places and learnt a bit more about this unusual side of Cagliari. A big thank you to Anna from Sardinia Magic Experience for leading our tour. And to Dan & Katie for a very memorable Christmas present!
Galleria Rifugio di Don Bosco
Inside the grounds of a local school behind a small, unassuming rusty gate, lies a carved stone staircase that leads you deep underground. Some 300 years ago during the Sardinian-Piedmont conflict, the Piedmontese (from northwestern Italy) created a network of tunnels underneath the city of Cagliari, just outside of the city walls.
During the Second World War this network of tunnels provided shelter to hundreds of residents of the city, some of them living underground here for months on end. Cagliari was the second most-bombed city in Italy, and 75% of her buildings were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. We wondered what life would have been like down here, and we marvelled at some of the items left behind. A pile of glass drink bottles with labels still in tact. Pots and pans near a kitchen sink. Broken players from a Table Football game.
Today, the 180m long tunnel survives intact. It was a magical experience to explore this subterranean world by candlelight, just as residents would have done all those years ago. And as we retraced our footsteps to leave the tunnel, the children revelled in blowing out each of the hundreds of candles that had been set out just for us.
Cripta di Santa Restituta
In the heart of the city under the Church of Santa Restituta lies a large limestone cave that has been used and exploited by inhabitants of Sardinia for over 2,000 years. It is a summary of the various civilisations that have dominated Cagliari since Pagan times. Over this period the crypt has been a quarry for limestone blocks, a place of worship, a shelter for refugees, an amphorae warehouse, a place to lay the dead, a supposed prison, an altar for saintly relics, a schoolhouse, a water-tank, and an air-raid shelter.
A single 13th century fresco still remains. Wartime graffiti adorns the walls; the names and dates of those taking refuge during WWII are scribbled in the corner. A tally is etched just above an old Roman waterline mark, denoting over 2 months’ worth of days spent underground during the war. Today the cavern is a museum.
Museo del Tesoro di Sant'Eulalia
In the Marina district of Cagliari, just up the hill from where we are docked, lies the Church of Sant'Eulalia. The parish incorporates one of the most important museums in the city. In 1990, while cleaning out an old well built in the 1600s, workers discovered an archaeological area underneath the church that had been forgotten for centuries. This discovery kickstarted an excavation and preservation process that would take 20 years to complete.
The archaeological site consists of a large flagstone Roman road, complete with subterranean sewer pipe and integrated stone toilet. Animal troughs still sit in situ in a workroom, and a cistern bears the scars of ropes used to haul up water from the tank beneath. Hundreds of bronze coins were discovered in a storehouse. An open pit quarry shows half-carved blocks in the rock bank, as if abandoned mid-shift. Remnants of large marble-based columns allude to prior grandeur.
The sheer size and scale of this site was impressive, but even more-so the impeccable condition of it all. A pile of collapsed limestone blocks look strategically placed, but have in-fact been left just as they were found by archaeologists. We felt like we were on a film set, and that somehow all the lives that have been played out here over time were done so just to remind us of how little time we are granted in this life.
