Autonomy & Contemporary Living Traditions

The unified Italian nation-state and its formation.

1 chapter

1861 - 1948

Italian unification in 1861 brought Sardinia into the new nation-state, but modernization arrived unevenly — most dramatically in the mining corridors of the Sulcis-Iglesiente and the Arburese-Guspinese, where lead, zinc, and silver extraction created industrial communities with their own patron-saint feasts and mutual-aid society (società di mutuo soccorso) celebrations that diverged from the agrarian carnival calendar. The Montevecchio mining complex near Guspini, active from the mid-19th century, preserves an entire mining village with managerial residences, workers' housing, and processing plants. Porto Flavia (1924), the spectacular sea-cliff loading gallery at Masua, engineered ore directly onto ships — climb through its stone arches and you experience the ambition of Sardinian industrial modernization at its peak. In 1899, the Cavalcata Sarda was staged in Sassari for King Umberto I's visit; revived in 1951, it evolved from a royal homage spectacle into a civic identity parade. The Bastione di Saint Remy (1896–1901), rebuilt atop earlier Spanish fortifications, symbolizes Cagliari's post-unification urban renewal.

1720 - 1861

In 1720, the House of Savoy received Sardinia in exchange for Sicily, creating the Kingdom of Sardinia that would later become the vehicle for Italian unification. From the island's perspective, however, the Savoyard period was one of absentee governance from Turin, heavy taxation, and coastal defense against Barbary piracy. The Fortino di Sant'Ignazio, a late-18th-century casemated fort on Cagliari's Sant'Elia hill, embodies this defensive posture. During the Napoleonic era, the Savoyard king resided in Cagliari for the first time (1799–1814), briefly making the island the kingdom's operational capital. The Pisan-built Torre dell'Elefante (1307) continued to serve in Cagliari's defensive perimeter under Savoyard rule. This era also saw anti-feudal revolts (Su Connottu, 1796) as Sardinian communities resisted feudal obligations that the Savoyards had promised but failed to abolish — a tension between Piedmontese centralization and Sardinian autonomy that would recur.

1324 - 1720

The Crown of Aragon conquered Sardinia from 1324, establishing the 'Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica' as a constituent of the Aragonese confederation. The Battle of Sanluri in 1409 crushed the last Arborean military resistance, and by 1420 the Giudicati were extinguished. Aragonese rule brought Iberian administrative structures, Catalan-language governance, and — crucially for festival history — the equestrian jousting traditions that evolved into Sa Sartiglia. This Oristano carnival, governed since the Aragonese period by the Gremi (artisan guilds), features the vestizione (ritual investiture) of Su Componidori and a star-tilting ride whose documented origin is Iberian; the depth of any older agrarian substrate remains debated among scholars and guild custodians. The most visible Catalan imprint is Alghero (L'Alguer), where the population still speaks Alguerés (a Catalan dialect) and celebrates Holy Week processions with Catalan-language hymns — a living linguistic enclave within Sardinia. The Savoyards took formal control in 1720, but Catalan cultural infrastructure endured.

1050 - 1324

As Byzantine authority receded, Sardinia fractured into four autonomous kingdoms — the Giudicati of Cagliari, Arborea, Gallura, and Torres — each ruled by a giudice (judge) with sovereign legal and military powers. These were genuine states with their own laws, the most famous being the Carta de Logu promulgated by Eleanor (Elianora) of Arborea in the 1390s, a Sardinian-language legal code that remained in force under Aragonese rule until 1427. Pisan and Genoese maritime republics entered as allies, merchants, and ultimately colonizers, importing Romanesque architects who left a cascade of two-toned basilicas across the island. Stand before the basilica of Saccargia (consecrated 1116 by the Giudice of Torres) and you see Pisan-Lombard stonework built at the direct commission of a Sardinian sovereign — a distinct fusion of autonomous governance and imported architectural language. The Giudicati era ended when the Aragonese conquest began in 1324, though Arborea resisted until 1409.