THE HISTORY OF THESE ENCHANTING WALLS
From reading the “historical notes on Castello“, it is clear that the Castle of Cagliari was certainly inhabited before the 11th century. In 1257, in the Church of Santa Maria in Castello, the transept was added, thus dividing the Latin cross-shaped Church, which dates back to the 12th century. It is known that when the Giudicato Cagliaritano (Giudicato of Cagliari) ceased to exist, in the second half of the 13th century, the seat of the Church was moved.
(picture postcard of the Cathedral in the late 1970s)
In the light of this data, the settlement of the Church in Castello, near “the Cathedral dedicated to St Cecilia and the Rectory with the Episcopio”, occurred when the cathedral, besides being the parish church of the Pisan village in formation, was certainly at the centre of a consolidated urban settlement; certainly the Via del Duomo, then Via dei Pellicciai, which began a few metres from the Cathedral, was certainly urbanised.
The Dimora Madonna della Speranza is about thirteen metres from the front of the Cathedral, passing through the Church of Hope, and borders the then Episcopio, as it is located above the portico of Via Fossario.
The present building is the result of various alterations over the centuries. One interior wall, deprived of its plaster, undoubtedly part of another construction at different times, shows the entire surface blackened brown by fire, probably part of those 130 houses mentioned by Manno.
On the various walls, windows are clumsily chiselled in motifs, recalling various styles, Doric, Ionic, Gothic. Other interiors show finely carved barrel vaults in squared tuff stone, damaged Gothic doors, several very large windows in tuff stone, all of which have survived the centuries and come down to our times.
The construction brings to light that art, which emerges from the structure that has survived to this day, and which, over these nine centuries, has made the history of Cagliari Castle.
