Even Lawrence and D'Annunzio were guests at the Scala di Ferro

In Cagliari, in piazza Palazzo (Palace square –in the district of Castello), we find the Palazzo Viceregio (XIV century, modified on several occasions, it hosts the offices of the Prefecture) and the old Town hall (XVIII century). A little more downhill, overcome the Torre dell’Elefante (The Elephant tower), the terrace entitled to Umberto I offers from the top of the Bastione San Remy (liberty style, of the beginning of the 1900's) a panoramic view of the city and of the Golfo degli Angeli (Angels’ Gulf). From the many hills of Cagliari, you can admire the green patches that make breathe the city: from the Orto Botanico (Botanical Garden) (1866) to the Giardini Pubblici di Terrapieno (Public Garden of Terrapieno), that host the Communal Art Gallery. We also mention the Civic Palace in via Roma (other example of liberty), the ex communal slaughterhouse (called ExMà, dates 1845 and hosts cultural events of different kinds), the monumental cemetery of Bonaria, the Lazzaretto (for the quarantine of people and goods coming from epidemic risk countries: it goes back to the XVII century).

The Scala di Ferro (The Iron scale) was the first hotel structure of Cagliari. Inaugurated in 1859 on the seventeenth-century bastion of Monserrato (so-called because it hosted a cloister of Benedictine of Spain of Our Lady of Monserrato), it accommodated well-known people, like the writers and poets David Herbert Lawrence, Paul Ambroise Valéry, Gabriele D’Annunzio and Salvatore Quasimodo, the lyric singer Mario Del Monaco, the riders Fausto Coppi and Lino Bartali.

The massive Scala di Ferro, situated halfway between the Bastion of San Remy and the port, shows towers and façades that remember the architectonic style of the medieval castles. During the interiors reconstruction works (the building will host the prefecture offices), have been uncovered the remains of graves and funereal stones of the Roman Age, objects and kits, jewels and pendants, and a sink connected to a roman aqueduct. The Town Hall has obtained a wing of the Scala di Ferro, that soon will host a museum dedicated to the history of the city from the pre-history to the Roman Age.