Cagliari
Discover Cagliari
A concise introduction to Cagliari, its geography, history and culture.
Introduction
Cagliari is the capital of Sardinia and its largest city, with about 150,000 people in the commune and roughly 420,000 in the wider area.
It is built on and around a limestone ridge above the Gulf of Angels. Castello, the walled quarter on top, holds the cathedral, the two surviving Pisan towers and the archaeological museum. Below it three historic districts run down to the water: Marina by the port, Stampace to the west and Villanova to the east.
The Bastione di Saint Remy, a monumental terrace built over the old fortifications around 1900, is the join between the upper city and the lower.
East of the centre are the Molentargius salt ponds, where flamingos nest in thousands, and beyond them Poetto, the city beach, eight kilometres long and reachable by bus.