Quartu Sant'Elena (; sc, Cuartu Sant'Aleni; ), located four miles East from

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

on the ancient Roman road, is a city and ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' in the

Metropolitan City of Cagliari The Metropolitan City of Cagliari ( it, Città metropolitana di Cagliari, Sardinian: ''Tzittadi metropolitana de Casteddu'') is a metropolitan city in Sardinia, Italy. Its capital is the city of Cagliari and includes 17 comuni. It was establi ...

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label= Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, aft ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. It is the third biggest city of Sardinia with a population of 71,216 .

History

The city's name comes from its distance to Cagliari (''Quartum miles'',

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

for “four miles”), and from the passage there of St. Helena, mother of emperor Constantine. The first traces of human presence in Quartu are from the Prenuragic,

Nuragic The nuraghe (, ; plural: Logudorese Sardinian , Campidanese Sardinian , Italian ), or also nurhag in English, is the main type of ancient megalithic edifice found in Sardinia, developed during the Nuragic Age between 1900 and 730 B.C. ...

and Phoenician period, as attested by findings in Cepola, Geremeas, Is Mortorius and Separassiu localities. Roman findings were found near Sant’Andrea villa, a graveyard at S. Martino and a few tombs at Simbirizzi. In the 11th century AD Sardinia was divided into four

Giudicati The Judicates (, or in Sardinian, in Latin, or in Italian), in English also referred to as Sardinian Kingdoms, Sardinian Judgedoms or Judicatures, were independent states that took power in Sardinia in the Middle Ages, between the ninth a ...

: Quartu, which included fourteen villas, belonged to the

Giudicato of Cagliari The Judicate of Cagliari ( sc, Judicadu de Càralis / Càlaris, it, Giudicato di Cagliari) was one of the four Sardinian ''judicates'' of the Middle Ages, kingdoms of Byzantine origins. The Judicate of Cagliari covered the entire south and centra ...

. In 1066 Quartu was given to Cagliari's archbishop and then went back to Judge Torchitorio II of Cagliari. During the Aragonese rule, Quartu suffered from famines, plague, malaria and continuous raids from

Saracen upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek and Latin writings, to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Romans as Arabia ...

pirates, following the general path of decay of the whole of Sardinia. In 1793 the soldiers of a French fleet landed on the coast of Quartu, with the intention of conquering the whole island; the people of the city, led by Antonio Pisanu, assailed the French and repelled them after a bloody battle. The feudalism started by the Aragonese, led since 1436 by Giovanni de Sena, viscount of Sanluri and baron of Quatru Saint'Elena, ended in 1836 under the baron Pes di Villamarina. In 1956 Quartu Sant’Elena was upgraded to the status of “city” by the

President of Italy The president of Italy, officially denoted as president of the Italian Republic ( it, Presidente della Repubblica Italiana) is the head of state of Italy. In that role, the president represents national unity, and guarantees that Italian poli ...

Giovanni Gronchi Giovanni Gronchi, (; 10 September 1887 – 17 October 1978) was an Italian politician from Christian Democracy who served as the president of Italy from 1955 to 1962 and was marked by a controversial and failed attempt to bring about an "open ...

Main sights

There are five churches situated in the city. The most important are the churches of ''Sant'Elena Imperatrice'' (dating before 1589, but now in neoclassical style and recently proclaimed "

Basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its nam ...

"), ''Santa Maria Cepola'' (before 1089) and ''Sant'Agata''. There is also ''Sa dom’e farra'', a large peasant house of the 17th century with various rooms, objects and tools used by the peasant society. There are numerous '' nuraghi'' in the vicinity.

Geography

Quartu has a long, shallow coastline. It also looks onto the pond of Molentargius, where flamingos and Sultan roosters nest.

Climate

Economy

The economy is based on the tertiary industry. Quartu also produces excellent wines, bread and cakes. Although the city is not extremely big, there are many shopping opportunities:

Carrefour Carrefour () is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, France. The eighth-largest retailer in the world by revenue, it operates a chain of hypermarkets, groceries stores and convenience stores, whic ...

, E. Leclerc-Conad, Iper Pan.

Festivities

The most important religious festivity is dedicated to Saint Helena and is celebrated on 14 September.

Sport

Quartu Sant'Elena has a 16,500-capacity football stadium, the

Stadio Is Arenas Stadio Comunale "Is Arenas" is a sports stadium in Quartu Sant'Elena, Sardinia, Italy. It is mostly used for Association football, football games and was the home venue of Serie A club Cagliari Calcio for the 2012–13 Serie A, 2012–13 season. ...

. In the 2012–13 season, it hosted

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

club

Cagliari Calcio Cagliari Calcio, commonly referred to as Cagliari (), is an Italian football club based in Cagliari, Sardinia. In the 2022-23 season, they compete in Serie B. As of 2021–22, the team is temporarily playing their home games at the 16,416-sea ...

, whose

Stadio Sant'Elia Stadio Comunale Sant'Elia was a football stadium in Cagliari, Italy. It is best known for having been the home of Cagliari Calcio. It hosted three matches during the 1990 FIFA World Cup. The stadium had an initial capacity of 60,000 spectators, ...

was closed that year. Quartu Sant'Elena has also a 500-capacity Marina, Marina di Capitana, with a sailing school, Scuola Italia in Vela.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quartu Sant'elena Cities and towns in Sardinia