Sardinia

For other uses, see Sardinia (disambiguation).

Template:Infobox Region of Italy Sardinia (Template:PronEng; Italian: Sardegna, [sarˈdeɲɲa]; Sardinian: Sardigna or Sardinnya [sarˈdinja]) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily). It is an constitutional autonomous 'Regione' of Italy, and the nearest land masses are (clockwise from north) the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Tunisia, and the Spanish Balearic Islands.

The name Sardinia is a Latin creation possibly based on that of the dominant indigenous ethnic group, called the Sardi/Sardini in Latin, and ultimately may be from the ethnic group of the Shardana (which see).

Geography

A beach near Olbia.

Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 23,821 km². It is situated between 38° 51' and 41° 15' latitude north and 8° 8' and 9° 50' east longitude.

The coasts of Sardinia (1,849 km long) are generally high and rocky, with long, relatively straight stretches of coastline, many outstanding headlands, a few wide, deep bays, many inlets, and with various smaller islands of the coast.

The island has an ancient geoformation and, unlike the mainland of Italy and Sicily, not earthquake-prone, being nonseismic. Its rocks date from the Palaeozoic Era (up to 500 million years old). Due to long erosion processes the island's highlands, formed of granite, schist, tranchite, basalt (called "jars" or "gollei"), sandstone and dolomite limestone (called tonneri or "heels"), average at between 300 to 1,000 metres. The highest peak is Punta La Marmora (1,834 m), part of the Gennargentu ranges in the center of the island. Other mountain chains are Monte Limbara (1,362 m) in the north east, the Chain of Marghine and Goceano (1,259 m) running crosswise for 40 km (24.85 mi) towards the north, the Monte Albo (1057 meters), the Sette Fratelli Range in the south east, and the Sulcis Mountains and the Monte Linas (1236 meters) in the south west. The island's ranges and plateaus are separated by wide alluvial valleys and flatlands, the main ones being the Campidano in the southwest between Oristano and Cagliari, and the Nurra in the northwest.

Sardinia has few major rivers, the largest being the Tirso, 151 km (93.83 mi) long, which flows into the Sea of Sardinia, the Coghinas (115 km) and the Flumendosa (127 km). There are 54 artificial lakes and dams which supply water and electricity. The main ones are Lake Omodeo and Lake Coghinas. The only natural freshwater lake is Lago di Baratz. A number of large, shallow, salt-water lagoons and pools are located along the 1,850 km (1,149.54 mi) of the coastline.

The climate is typical of the Mediterranean. During the year there are approximately 300 days of sunshine, with a major concentration of rainfall in the winter and autumn, some heavy showers in the spring, and snowfalls in the highlands. The average temperature is between 14 and 14 to 20 °C (57 to 68 °F). The Mistral from the northwest is the dominant wind on and off throughout the year, though it is most prelavent in winter and spring. It can blow quite strongly, but it is usually dry and cool, and makes for a sailor's paradise.

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  Sea in Stintino
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  The Gorropu Canyon in Supramonte
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  Porto Giunco in Villasimius
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  The Campidano Plain near Las Plassas
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  Gennargentu Ranges in winter
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  Granitic landscape in Gallura
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  Cala Goloritzé in Ogliastra Baunei
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  A typical limestone tacco in Ogliastra

History

Main article: History of Sardinia

File:Sunurax gay gayguy.it.jpg

Su Nuraxi nuragic site.

Prehistory

Holy well of Su Tempiesu.

Sardinia is one of the most geologically ancient bodies of land in Europe. Though evidence of human visits date from the Palaeolithic period, permanent settlements only appear much later in the Neolithic age, around 6,000 BC.

The first people to settle in northern Sardinia probably came from the Italian mainland via Corsica, particularly from Etruria (present-day Tuscany), while those who populated the central region of the island around the salt lakes of Cabras and St Giusta may have arrived from the Iberian Peninsula by way of the Balearic Islands. The settlements founded around the Gulf of Cagliari seem to be of various origins.

Evidence of trade with Aegean (Eastern Mediterranean) centres is present in the period 1600 BC onwards; for example fine ceramic products from Cydonia have been recovered in Sardinia. As time passed, the different Sardinian peoples appear to have became united in language and customs, yet remained divided politically as various small, tribal groupings, at times banding together, and at others waging war against each other. Habitations consisted of round thatched stone huts, similar to those of present-day shepherds.

From about 1500 BC onwards, villages were built around the round tower-fortresses called nuraghi (Northern Sardinian nuraghes, Southern Sardinian nuraxis, plurals of nuraghe and nuraxi respectively), which were often reinforced and enlarged with battlements. The boundaries of tribal territories were guarded by smaller lookout nuraghi erected on strategic hills commanding a view of other territories. Today some 7,000 nuraghi dot the Sardinian landscape.

Ancient history

The Phoenician town of Tharros.

Around 1000 BC the Phoenicians began visiting Sardinia with increasing frequency, presumably initially needing safe over-night and/or all-weather anchorages along their trade routes from the coast of modern-day Lebanon as far afield as the African and European Atlantic coasts and beyond, including Britain . The most common ports of call were Caralis, Nora, Bithia, Sulcis, Tharros, Bosa and Olbia. These soon became important colonies, inhabited by Phoenician traders and their families who traded overseas and with the Sardinians .

In 509 BC, as Phoenician expansion became ever more dominating, the Sardinians attacked the coastal cities held by the enemy, who, in order to defend themselves, called upon their fellow Phoenecians in Carthage for help. The Carthaginians, after a number of military campaigns, overcame the Sardinians and conquered the mountainous interior. For 271 years, the Carthaginian or Punic civilization flourished alongside the local culture.

In 238 BC the Carthaginians, as a result of their defeat by the Romans in the first Punic War, surrendered Sardinia to Rome. Sardinia became a Roman province, and the existing coastal cities were enlarged and embellished, while Coloniae such as Turris Lybissonis and Feronia were founded. These were populated by Roman immigrants. The Roman military occupation brought the Nuragic civilization to an end. Despite campaigns into the central mountain ranges, called by the Romans Barbaria (Modern Sardinian Barbargia), Roman domination of the center of Sardinia was never more than nominal. Roman domination of Sardinia lasted 694 years, however it was often opposed by the Sardinians in the mountainous regions, even though even here the Latin language came to dominate, though not Latin civilisation.

Medieval history

Statue of Giudicessa Eleanor of Arborea in Oristano.

In 456 A.D., when the Roman Empire was in rapid decline, the Vandals, on their return from a raid in Latium on the mainland Italy, occupied Caralis along with the other coastal cities of Sardinia. In 534 the Vandals were defeated in the Battle of Tricamarum by the troops of Justinian, and Sardinia thus became Byzantine, returning to the Roman Empire as part of the Eastern Roman Empire.

The island was divided into districts called merèie, governed by a judge residing in Caralis (Cagliari) and garrisoned by an army stationed in Forum Traiani (nowadays Fordongianus) under the command of a dux. With the Byzantines came Christianity, which spread throughout the island, along with the monasticism of the followers of St. Basil), except in the Barbagia region. Here, towards the end of the 6th century, a short-lived independent kingdom established itself, with local heathen religious traditions. One of its kings was Ospitone.

Raids and attacks by the Moors and Berbers on the Sardinian shores began in 710 and grew ever more intense with time. The coastal inhabitants abandoned the seaside towns and cities. The provincial "judge", in order to provide a better defence of the island, established regional civil and military powers in the hands of four lieutenants, in the Cagliari, the Torres or Logudoro, the Arborea, and the Gallura. Around 900, the lieutenants gained their independence, becoming judices (Sardinian judike, giudixi, "king") of their own logo "state" (lit. place).

Each one of these four states was an independent kingdom where a King or Queen was the head of state, but where the kingdom was not the property of the monarch. They were at the same time democratic, since all the most important issues of national interest were decided by the representatives of the people gathered in an assembly called corona de logu. Each kingdom manned its own fortifications along its boundaries to protect its own political and trading affairs, parliament, laws (recorded in the cartas de logu "kingdom charters"), language, chancelleries, state emblems and symbols, etc.

The Kingdom of Cagliari was allied to the Republic of Genoa. It was brought to an end in 1258 when its capital, St Igia, was stormed and destroyed by an alliance of Sardinian and Pisan forces. The territory then briefly became a colony of the Pisa.

The kingdom of Torres was also allied to the Republic of Genoa and came to an end in 1259 on the death of the judikessa (queen) Adelasia. The territory was divided up between the Doria family of Genoa and the Basserra family of Arborea, while the city of Sassari became an autonomous city-republic.

The Kingdom of Gallura ended in the year 1288, when the last giudice, Nino Visconti (a friend of Dante Alighieri), was driven out by the Pisans, who occupied the territory.

The Kingdom of Arborea had a longer life compared to the other kingdoms. It lasted some 520 years and had Oristano (Aristanis in Sardinian) as its capital. The kingdom was called Arborea after its coat of arms, which featured a green uprooted tree on a white field. The history of Arborea is entwined with the history of the Sardinian struggle for independence against Aragonese invasion.

In 1297, Pope Boniface VIII established on his own initiative (motu proprio) a hypothetical regnum Sardiniae et Corsicae ("Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica") in order to settle the War of the Vespers diplomatically. This had broken out in 1282 between the Angevins and Aragonese over the possession of Sicily. The Pope offered this newly created crown to James II, the King of Aragon, promising him support should he wish to conquer Pisan Sardinia in exchange for Sicily.

In 1323 the king of Arborea formed an alliance with James II of Aragon against the Pisans, despite being aware of the Aragonese plans to take control of Sardinia, because they saw the Pisans as a bigger threat. It is also important to remember that the kings of Arborea descended in part from an Aragonese family. The Aragonese flag appeared on the Arborean coat of arms and flags along with the uprooted tree until the later conflict between Arborea and Aragon escalated. Following a military campaign which lasted a year or so, the Aragonese occupied the Pisan territories of Cagliari and Gallura along with the city of Sassari, naming them "The Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica". However, soon the king of Arborea started to wage war against the Aragonese, having his own plans to unite Sardinia as one independent kingdom.

The first king of Arborea to actively pursue the plan to unite Sardinia under the rule of Arborea was Barisone The First. He managed to be crowned King of Sardinia by the Holy Roman Empire emperor Fredrick "Barbarossa" The First in 1164. However, in order to obtain the title of King of Sardinia, Barisone the First had taken out a loan from the Republic of Genoa that he was unable to pay back. For this reason, he was imprisoned by the Republic of Genoa and was detained for 7 years. Barisone never succeeded in uniting Sardinia under his rule because of his financial problems.

When the other Giudicati had been taken over by foreign powers, the kings of Arborea started to see themselves as the legitimate defenders of Sardinian rule and Sardinian interests. They not only waged war against the Kings of Aragon, who were trying to conquer all of Sardinia, they also formalised the legal and political institutions that were the basis of their statehood and independence, such as by promulgating the legal code of the kingdom in the Carta de Logu (in Sardinian "The Charter if the Land"). The Carta de Logu was originally compiled by Mariano IV of Arborea, and was amended and updated by Mariano's daughter, Queen Eleanor of Arborea. The legal code was written in Sardinian and:

established a whole range of citizens' rights. Among the revolutionary concepts in this Carta de Logu was the right of women to refuse marriage and to own property. In terms of civil liberties, the code made provincial 14th century Sardinia one of the most developed societies in all of Europe [2].

In the Carta de Logu it is clear that the kings and queens of Arborea saw themselves as the legitimate rulers of Sardinia: they stated very clearly that the Carta de Logu applied to the whole of Sardinia, not just to their dominions, and that it had been established to guarantee the well-being and development of the Sardinian state and its people.

In 1353 Peter IV of Aragon, following Aragonese custom, granted a parliament to the kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica, which was followed in due course by some degree of self-government under a viceroy and judicial independence. This parliament, however, had some very limited powers. It consisted of the military (high-ranking military commanders), the clergy and the nobility. The kingdom of Aragon also introduced the feudal into the areas of Sardinia ruled by it.

The Sardinian kingdoms never adopted feudalism, and the Kingdom of Arborea maintained its parliament called the "Corona de Logu". In this parliament, apart from the nobles and military commanders, also sat the representatives of each township and village. The Corona de Logu exercised some control over the king: under the rule of the "bannus consensus" the king could be deposed or even killed if he did not follow the rules of kingdom.

From 1365 to 1409 the Arborean giudici Mariano IV, Ugone III, Mariano V (assisted by his mother Eleonora, the famous giudicessa regent), and Guglielmo III (the French grandson of Eleonora) succeeded in occupying all of Sardinia except the heavily fortified towns of the Castle of Cagliari (today simply Cagliari) and Alghero, which for years were the only Aragonese dominions in Sardinia. The Giudicato of Arborea and its monarchs received a great deal of support from many Sardinians of all classes, partly because many Sardinians were strongly against the feudal system that the Kingdom of Aragon introduced in its domains.

In 1409 Martin I of Sicily, king of Sicily and heir to the crown of Aragon, defeated the Sardinians at the Battle of Sanluri (Sa battalla de Seddori in Sardinian). The battle was fought by about 20,000 Sardinians, who had taken up arms voluntarily at a time when the population of Sardinia had been greatly depleted by the plague (and therefore 20,000 Sardinians represented a very considerable number). Despite the Sardinian army outnumbering the Aragonese army, they were defeated. It is estimated that about 5,000 Sardinians were killed in the battle. A field near Sanluri is still known to this day as S'Occidroxiu ("the massacre place").

The kingdom of Arborea finally surrendered only after some of its most notable men switched sides in exchange for privileges. For example, Leonardo Cubello, with some claim to the crown being from a family related to the Kings of Arborea, was granted the title of Marquis of Oristano and feudal rights on a territory that partly overlapped with the original extension of the Kingdom of Arborea in exchange for his subjection to the King of Aragon.

The successes of the Kingdom of Aragon were marred by the death of the heir to the Aragon crown, Martin I of Sicily, who died in Cagliari (where he is buried) of malaria contracted during the military campaign against the Kingdom of Arborea. Consequently the Crown of Aragon passed to a different dynasty, the Trastàmaras, to Ferdinand I of Aragon and his descendants thorugh the Compromise of Caspe in 1412.

The conquest of Sardinia by the Kingdom of Aragon and the consequent loss of independence also meant the introduction of the feudal system throughout Sardinia. Thus Sardinia is probably the only European country where feudalism was introduced in the transition period from the Medieval to the Modern Era, at a time when feudalism had already been abandoned by many other European countries.

Modern history

In 1479, as a result of the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabel of Castile, the "kingdom of Sardinia" (which was separated from Corsica) became Spanish, with the state symbol of the Four Moors. Following the failure of the military ventures against the Muslims of Tunis (1535) and Algiers (1541), Charles V of Spain, in order to defend his Mediterranean territories from pirate raids by the African Berbers, fortified the Sardinian shores with a system of coastal lookout towers.

Map of Sardinia-Piedmont, 1836.

The kingdom of Sardinia remained Spanish for approximately 400 years, from 1323 to 1720, assimilating a number of Spanish traditions, customs, and linguistic expressions, nowadays vividly portrayed in the folklore parades of Saint Efisio in Cagliari (May 1), the Cavalcade on Sassari (last but one Sunday in May), and the Redeemer in Nuoro (August 28).

During the terrible famine of 1680, some 80,000 persons, out of a total population of 250,000, are said to have died, and entire villages were devastated.

In 1708, as a consequence of the Spanish War of Succession, the rule of the kingdom of Sardinia passed into the hands of the Austrians who landed on the island. In 1717 Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, minister of Philip V of Spain, reoccupied Sardinia. In 1718, with the Treaty of London, Sardinia was handed over to the House of Savoy.

On 28 April 1794, during an uprising in Cagliari, two Piedmontese officials were killed. That was the start of a revolt (called the Moti rivoluzionari sardi) all over the island, which culminated in the expulsion of the tyrants. On 28 December 1795 in Sassari insurgents demonstrating against feudalism, mainly from the region of Logudoro, occupied the city. On 13 February 1796, in order to suppress a riot, the viceroy Filippo Vivalda gave to the Sardinian magistrate Giovanni Maria Angioy the role of Alternos, which meant a substitute of the viceroy himself. Angioy moved from Cagliari to Sassari, and during his journey almost all the villages joined the uprising, demanding an end to feudalism and for the independence of Sardinia's people.

In 1799, as a consequence of the Napoleonic wars in Italy, the Dukes of Savoy left Turin and took refuge in Cagliari for some fifteen years. In 1847 the Sardinians spontaneously renounced their state autonomy and formed a union with Piedmont in order to have a single parliament, a single magistracy, and a single government in Turin.

In 1848 the Italian Wars of Independence broke out for the Unification of Italy and were led by the kings of Sardinia for thirteen years. In 1861 Sardinia joined the newly founded Kingdom of Italy.

During the First World War the Sardinian soldiers of the Brigata Sassari distinguished themselves, several being decorated with gold medals and other honors. It was the first and only Italian military unit constituted exclusively from Sardinian soldiers.

The Sardinian writer Grazia Deledda won Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926.

During the fascist period, and implementation of the policy of autarky, several swamps were reclaimed around the island and agrarian communities founded. The main communities were in the area of Oristano, where the village of Mussolinia (now called Arborea) was located, and in the area adjacent the city of Alghero, within the region of Nurra, Fertilia was founded. Also established during that time was the city of Carbonia, which became the main center of mining activity. Works to dry the numerous waste lands and the reprise of mining activities favored the arrival of settlers and immigrants, at first from Veneto, and after World War II Istrians and Dalmatians from territories lost to Yugoslavia.

The repression by the fascist regime of its opponents within the region was ruthless. Antonio Gramsci, one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party, was arrested and died in prison. Michele Schirru was executed after a failed assassination plot against Benito Mussolini.

Postwar period

In 1946 by popular referendum Italy became a republic, with Sardinia administered since 1948 by special statute of autonomy.

By 1951, malaria was successfully eliminated with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, which facilitated the commencement of the Sardinian tourist boom, mainly focused on beach holidays and elite tourism. Today about ten million people visit the island every year.

With the increase in tourism, coal decreased in importance. In the 1950s and 1960s the greatest Sardinian migration began. However, in the early 1960s an industrialization effort was commenced, the so-called Piani di Rinascita (rebirth plans), with the initiation of major infrastructure projects on the island. These included the construction of new dams and roads, reforestation, agricultural zones on reclaimed marshland, and large industrial complexes (primarily oil refineries and related petrochemical operations). With the creation of petrochemical industries, thousands of ex-farmers became industrial workers. Nevertheless, the 1973 oil crisis caused the termination of employment for thousands of workers employed in the petrochemical industries.

Santo Stefano's former NATO Naval Base

The economic crisis, unemployment, and the forced militarization of the island territory (70% of Italian military bases were located in Sardinia) aggravated the crime rate, with increasing kidnappings and political subversion. Communist groups flourished, the most famous being Barbagia Rossa, which perpetrated several terrorist actions between the 1970s and the early 1980s.

In 1983 a militant of an autonomist party, the Sardinian Action Party (Partito Sardo d'Azione), was elected president of the regional parliament, and in the 1980s several separatist movements were born; in the 1990s some of them became political parties, and in 2006 in the Province of Sassari the first separatist militant was elected. In 1999 Sardinian received official status together with Italian.

Today Sardinia is phasing in as an EU region, with a diversified economy focused on tourism and the tertiary sector. The economic efforts of the last twenty years have reduced the handicap of insularity, especially in the fields of low-cost air travel and advanced information technology. For example, the CRS4 (Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia) developed the first Italian website in 1991 and webmail in 1995. CRS4 allowed several telecommunication companies and internet service providers based on the island to flourish, such as Videonline in 1994 and Tiscali in 1998.

A G8 summit was planned to be held in Sardinia, on the island of La Maddalena, in July 2009. However in April 2009, the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, decided, without convoking the Italian parliament or consulting the governor of Sardinia, to move the summit, even though the works were almost completed, to L'Aquila, provoking protests among Sardinians that the autonomous status of Sardinia had been violated.

Economy

Petrochemical industries in Porto Torres.

Taken as a whole, Sardinia's economic conditions are such that the island is in the best position of southern regions. The greatest economic development has taken place inland, in the provinces of Cagliari and Sassari, characterized by a certain amount of enterprise. According to Eurostat, the 2007 GDP was €33,823.2 million, resulting in a €20,627 GDP per capita, in 2009.

The Sardinian economy is penalised due to high costs of transportation of goods and electricity, which is double compared to the continental Italian regions. Sardinia is the only Italian region that produces surplus of electricity, which supply power to the region, and not imports power from abroad, whereas the problem the region had encountered was insufficient transmission links as it is an island situated over 100 km from the mainland . In 2009 the new submarine power cable Sapei entered into operation, it links the Fiume Santo Power Station, in Sardinia, to the converter stations in Latina, in the Italian peninsula, the SACOI is another submarine power cable that links Sardinia to Italy, crossing Corsica, from 1965. The under construction submarine gas pipeline GALSI, will link Algeria to Sardinia and further Italy, in 2012.

The unemployment rate is higher than the national average, but lower than the South Italy regions.

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Gross domestic product nominal (Million €)	25,958.1	27,547.6	28,151.6	29,487.3	30,595.5	31,421.3	32,579.0	33,823.2
GDP per capita PPP (Euro)	15,861.0	16,871.4	17,226.5	17,975.7	18,581.0	19,009.8	19,654.3	20,444.1

A pie chart showing the economic sectors percentages in the Sardinian economy: 8.7% the primary sector (fishing, agriculture, farming), 23.5% the secondary sector (industry, machinery, manufacturing), and 67.8% the tertiary sector (tourism, services, finance).

The primary sector is still of outstanding importance, especially goat and sheep rearing (good production of cheese). Agriculture has been modernized on the Campidano plain (vegetables, citrus, rice), and Sardinian wines are famous. There is little fishing (and no real maritime tradition), but the once prosperous mining industry is still active though restricted to coal (Carbonia, Bacu Abis), antimony (Villasalto), gold (Furtei), bauxite (Olmedo) and lead and zinc (Iglesiente, Nurra). The granite extraction represents one of the most flourishing industry in the northern island. The Gallura granite district is composed of 260 companies that work in 60 quarries, where 75% of the Italian granite is extracted. The cork district, in the northern part of the Gallura region, around Calangianus and Tempio Pausania, is composed of 130 companies and has become the driver of Sardinian economic development. Every year in Sardinia 200,000 quintals of cork are carved, and 40% of the end products are exported. Fishing along the coasts is also an important activity on the island. Portoscuso tunas are exported worldwide, but primarily to Japan.

The principal industries are chemicals (Porto Torres, Cagliari, Villacidro, Ottana), petrochemicals (Porto Torres, Sarroch), metalworking (Porto Scuso, Porto Vesme, Villacidro), cement (Cagliari), pharmaceutical (Sassari), shipbuilding (Arbatax, Olbia, Porto Torres), oil rig construction (Arbatax), and food (sugar refineries at Villasor and Oristano, dairy at Arborea, Macomer and Thiesi, fish factory at Olbia). Craft industries include rugs, jewellery, textile, lacework , basket making, and coral.

The Sardinian economy is today focused on the overdeveloped tertiary sector (67.8% of employment), with commerce, services, information technology, public administration and especially on tourism, which represents the main industry of the island with 2,721 active companies and 189,239 rooms. In 2008 there were 2,363,496 arrivals (up 1.4% on 2007). In the same year, the airports of the island registered 11,896,674 passengers (up 1.24% on 2007).

Transportation

Airports

A319 of Sardinian airline Meridiana Fly .

Sardinia has three international airports (Alghero Airport, Olbia - Costa Smeralda Airport, and Cagliari-Elmas Airport) connected with the principal Italian cities and many European destinations, mainly in the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Spain, and Germany, and two regional airports (Oristano-Fenosu Airport and Tortolì Airport). Internal air connections between Sardinian airports are limited to a single daily Cagliari-Olbia flight. Sardinian citizens benefit from special sales on plane tickets, and several low-cost air companies operate on the island. Meridiana Fly is an airline based in the airport of Olbia; it was founded as Alisarda in 1963 by the Aga Khan, Prince Karim al-Hussayni. The development of the Meridiana airlines followed the development of the resort village of Porto Cervo in the north east part of the island,a well known vacation spot among billionaires and movie stars worldwide.

Ship transport

Corsica-Sardinia Ferries.

The ferry companies operating on the island are Tirrenia di Navigazione, Moby Lines, Corsica Ferries, Grandi Navi Veloci, Snav, SNCM, and CMN; they link the Sardinian harbors of Porto Torres, Olbia, Golfo Aranci, Arbatax, Santa Teresa Gallura, Palau and Cagliari with Civitavecchia, Genoa, Livorno, Naples, Palermo, Trapani, Piombino in Italy, Marseille, Toulon, Bonifacio, Propriano and Ajaccio in France, and Barcelona in Spain. A regional ferry company, the Saremar, links the main island to the islands of La Maddalena and San Pietro.

Roads

public bus in 1907

Sardinia is the only Italian region without motorways, but the road network is well developed, with a system of "superstrade" (dual carriage freeways), that connect the principal towns and the transport infrastructures; the speed limit is 90 km/h. The principal road is the SS131 "Carlo Felice", linking the north with the south of the island, crossing the most populated regions of Sassari and Cagliari; it is part of European route E25. The SS 131 d.c.n links Oristano with Olbia, crossing the hinterland Nuoro region. Other roads designed for high-capacity traffic link Sassari with Alghero, Sassari with Tempio Pausania, Sassari - Olbia, Cagliari - Tortolì, Cagliari - Iglesias, Nuoro - Villagrande Strisaili. A work in progress is converting the main routes to highways standards, with the elimination of all intersections. The secondary inland and mountain roads are generally narrow with many hairpin turns, so the speed limits are very low. Public transport buses reach every town and village at least once a day; however, due to the low density of population, the smallest territories are reachable only by car. The Azienda Regionale Sarda Trasporti (Arst) is the public regional bus transport agency.

Railways

Alstom Minuetto in Cagliari railway station

The Sardinian railway system was developed in the 19th century, by the English engineer Lord Benjamin Piercy. Trains connect the whole island, and there are two different railway operators. Trenitalia is the largest, connecting the largest towns, the main ports, and also the Italian peninsula through the use of train ferries. This network is the most modern on the island, running primarily diesel locomotives such as the Alstom "Minuetto" and, from 2012, speed tilting trains such as the Spanish CAF Class 598. The second operator is ARST Gestione FdS, best known as Ferrovie della Sardegna (Sardinian Railways), running on narrow-gauge track, and they are generally very slow, except the electrified Tram-trains, operating in the metropolitan areas of Sassari and Cagliari. Many tourists catch the trenino verde, which runs through the wildest parts of the island. It is slow but allows the traveller to have scenic views impossible to see from the main road.

Communications

Sardinia has become Europe’s first region to fully adopt the new television broadcasting standard. From the 1st of November 2008 TV channels are broadcast only in digital .

Demographics

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1861	609,000	—
1871	636,000	+4.4%
1881	680,000	+6.9%
1901	796,000	+17.1%
1911	868,000	+9.0%
1921	885,000	+2.0%
1931	984,000	+11.2%
1936	1,034,000	+5.1%
1951	1,276,000	+23.4%
1961	1,419,000	+11.2%
1971	1,474,000	+3.9%
1981	1,594,000	+8.1%
1991	1,648,000	+3.4%
2001	1,632,000	−1.0%
2008 (Est.)	1,670,000	+2.3%
Source: ISTAT 2001

With a population density of 69 pop./km², slightly more than a third of the national average, Sardinia is the fourth least populated region in Italy. The population distribution is anomalous compared to that of other Italian regions lying on the sea. In fact, contrary to the general trend, urban settlement has not taken place primarily along the coast but towards the centre of the island. Historical reasons for this include repeated Saracen raids during the Middle Ages (making the coast unsafe), widespread pastoral activities inland, and the swampy nature of the coastal plains (reclaimed only in the 20th century). The situation has reversed with the expansion of seaside tourism; today all Sardinia's major urban centres are located near the coasts, while the island's interior is very sparsely populated.

It is the Italian region with the lowest total fertility rate (1.087 births per woman), and the region with the second lowest birth rate; these factors, together with the high level of urbanization of population, allow the preservation of the greater part of the natural environment. However the population is increased, in the last years, due to immigration, mainly, from East Europe, Africa, China and Latin America.

Average life expectancy is 81.1 years (84.5 for women and 77.7 for men). Sardinia shares with the Japanese island of Okinawa the highest rate of centenarians in the world (22 centenarians/100,000 inhabitants).

Main Towns

• Cagliari 157,780 inhab. (369,000 metropolitan area)
  Cagliari 157,780 inhab. (369,000 metropolitan area)
• 
  Sassari 130,324 inhab. (225,000 metropolitan area)
• 
  Quartu Sant'Elena 71,254 inhab.
• 
  Olbia 51,045 inhab.
• 
  Alghero 43,831 inhab.
• 
  Nuoro 36,672 inhab.
• Oristano 32,932 inhab.
  Oristano 32,932 inhab.
• 
  Carbonia 30,081 inhab.

Genetic peculiarities

File:Haplogroup I.png

Haplogroup I Distribution in Europe

Sardinians do not constitute a homogeneous population from a genetic point of view . Compared to other European and Mediterranean populations, Sardinians are distinguished by genetic characteristics. . About 42% of the Sardinians belong to Y-chromosome haplogroup I, which is otherwise frequently encountered only in Scandinavia, Northern Germany and the Dalmatia-Bosnia-Montenegro-Serbia area.
The Subclade I-M26 of the Haplogroup I is almost unique to the island, with small numbers of it being found among the population of Basque Country, Castile, the department of Béarn and Brittany in France, England, Sweden and Corsica.

Furthermore, the I haplogroup of the indigenous Sardinians is of the I1b1b subtype, which is almost unique to the island. The I1b1b haplogroup also has a low distribution in and around the Pyrenees indicating some migration of Sardinians to or from that area. The Sardinian subtype is more closely related to the Dalmatian-Bosnian-Serb subtype than to the Scandinavian subtype. The second most common Y-chromosome haplogroup among Sardinian male population is the haplogroup R1b (22% of the total population) mainly present in the northern part of the island , Gallura in particularly (37%) . Sardinia also has a relatively high distribution of Y-chromosome haplogroup G (15%), stemming from people that migrated to Sardinia from Anatolia . The Y-chromosome haplogroup G also has a relatively high concentration in and around the Pyrenees and the Alps , again indicating migration of Sardinians to or from that area.Other haplogroups show lower frequencies.

Government and politics

Main article: Politics of Sardinia

Main article: List of political parties in Sardinia

Sardinia is one of the five italian autonomous regions, along with Valle d'Aosta, Trentino Alto Adige, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Sicily; however, of the 5, Sardinia is the only region administered by special statute of autonomy. This statute, second only to the Italian Constitution, gives the region the right to create its own laws in a wide number of domains and to carry out regional administrative functions.

The regional administration is constituted by three authorities:

• the Regional Council (legislative power)
• the Regional Junta (executive power)
• the President (chief of executive power)

Administrative divisions

Administrative bilingual map of Sardinia

Until 2005, Sardinia had been divided into four provinces: Cagliari, Nuoro, Oristano and Sassari. In 2005 the Regional Council decided to create four new provinces becoming operative with the provincial elections for the Presidents and the Councils held in 2006. The four additional provinces are as follows: Carbonia-Iglesias, Medio Campidano, Ogliastra, Olbia-Tempio.

Province	Area (km²)	Population	Density (inh./km²)
Province of Cagliari	4,570	559,416	122.4
Province of Carbonia-Iglesias	1,495	130,538	87.3
Province of Medio Campidano	1,516	103,107	68.0
Province of Nuoro	3,934	161,453	41.0
Province of Ogliastra	1,854	58,088	31.3
Province of Olbia-Tempio	3,399	153,886	45.2
Province of Oristano	3,040	167,357	55.0
Province of Sassari	4,282	336,374	78.5

Culture

See also: List of Sardinians, List of tourist attractions in Sardinia, and List of archaeological and artistic sites of Sardinia

A Issohadore and Mamuthones, traditional carnival costumes of Mamoiada.

Sardinia is one of two Italian regions whose inhabitants have been recognised as a popolo (a distinct people) by a local statute (which is adopted with a constitutional law). (The other region is Veneto, but this was not through a constitutional law).

Language

Main article: Sardinian language

Language Map of Sardinia.

A No Smoking sign in both Sardinian and Italian.

The most spoken languages in Sardinia are Sardinian and Italian. Sardinian is a Romance language of Latin origin, influenced by Catalan, Spanish and indigenous (Nuraghe) elements with some roots from Phoenician and Etruscan. While it has been significantly supplanted by Italian for official purposes, in 2006 the regional administration has approved the use of Limba Sarda Comuna in official documents. As a literary language, it is gaining clout, despite heated debate about the lack of standard orthography and controversial proposed solutions to this problem.

The two most widely spoken forms of the Sardinian languages are Campidanese, from the flatlands (Campidano) that cover most of the south (from Cagliari to Oristano), and Logudorese (Logudoro), from the central region, extending almost to Sassari.

Music

Main article: Music of Sardinia

Sardinia is home to one of the oldest forms of vocal polyphony, generally known as cantu a tenore; several famous musicians have found it irresistible, including Frank Zappa, Ornette Coleman, and Peter Gabriel. The latter travelled to the town of Bitti in the central mountainous region and recorded the now world-famous Tenores di Bitti CD on his Real World label. The guttural sounds produced in this form make a remarkable sound, similar to Tuvan throat singing. Another polyphonic style of singing, more like the Corsican paghjella and liturgic in nature, is found in Sardinia and is known as cantu a cuncordu.

Another unique instrument is the launeddas. Three reed-canes (two of them glued together with beeswax) producing distinctive harmonies, which have their roots many thousands of years ago, as demonstrated by the bronzette from Ittiri, of a man playing the three reed canes, dated to 2000 BC.

Beyond this, the tradition of cantu a chiterra (guitar songs) has its origins in town squares, when artists would compete against one another. The most famous singer of this genre are Maria Carta and Elena Ledda.

Sardinian culture is alive and well, and young people are actively involved in their own music and dancing. In 2004, BBC presenter Andy Kershaw travelled to the island with Sardinian music specialist Pablo Farba and interviewed many artists. His programme can be heard on BBC Radio 3. Sardinia has produced a number of notable jazz musicians as Antonello Salis, Marcello Melis, and Paolo Fresu.

The main opera house of the island is the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari.

Cuisine

A picture showing a lavish Sardinian wedding cake.

A range of different cakes, pastries, meals, dishes and sweets which are common elements of Sardinian cuisine.

Rock lobster, scampi,botargo, squid, tuna, sardines and other seafood figure prominently in Sardinian cuisine. Suckling pig and wild boar are roasted on the spit or boiled in stews of beans and vegetables, thickened with bread. Herbs such as mint and myrtle are used. Much Sardinian bread is made dry, which keeps longer than high-moisture breads. Those are baked as well, including civraxiu, coccoi pinatus, a highly decorative bread and pistoccu made with flour and water only, originally meant for herders, but often served at home with tomatoes, basil, oregano, garlic and a strong cheese.

Sports

Cagliari is home to Cagliari Calcio, which was founded in 1920 and plays in the Serie A, the Italian top division. It won the Italian Championship after the 1969/70 season, becoming the first club in Southern Italy to achieve such a result. Home matches are played at the Stadio Sant' Elia, named after the area where it is located, with a capacity of 23,486. It was built in 1970 and refurbished before the Italia '90 football World Championships.

Rally d' Italia in Gallura (2008)

Sardinia also boasts a fine darts tradition, which many believe originated in the Sassari region of the country towards the end of the 15th century. In those days, the darts were carved from Beech (Fagus) wood and the flights were feathers drawn from the indigenous pollo sultano, a bird famed for its spectacular violet-blue plumage.

In the Province of Sassari is located the Mores Raceway, the only FIA Circuit homologated by CSAI (Cars) and the IMF (Motorcycles), in Sardinia.

Cagliari hosted a Formula 3000 race in 2002 and 2003 on a 2.414-km street circuit around Sant'Elia stadium. In 2003, Renault F1's Jarno Trulli and former Ferrari's Jean Alesi did a spectacular exhibition. At the Grand Prix BMW-F1 driver Robert Kubica took part in a F.3 car, as did BMW WTCC Augusto Farfus, GP2's Fairuz Fauzy and Vitaly Petrov. Since 2004 Olbia has hosted the Rally d'Italia Sardegna, a rally competition in the FIA World Rally Championship schedule. The rally is held on narrow, twisty, sandy and bumpy mountainous roads around the glamorous town of Porto Cervo. Cagliari hosts regular international regattas, such RC44 championship, Farr 40 World championship and Audi MedCup; all series in which are competing current America's Cup contenders like BMW Oracle Racing, Mascalzone Latino and Emirates Team New Zealand. The Louis Vuitton Cup 2010 will be held in Sardinia, in the Maddalena archipelago.

Sant' Elia Stadium in Cagliari

Porto Pollo, north of Palau, is a bay often used by windsurfers and kitesurfers. The bay is divided by a thin tongue of land that separates it in an area for advanced and beginning/intermediate windsurfers. There is also a restricted area for kitesurfers. Many Italian freestyle surfers come to Porto Pollo for training and 2007 saw the finale of the freestyle pro kids Europe 2007 contest. Because of a venturi-effect between Sardinia and Corsica, western wind accelerates between the islands and creates the wind that makes Porto Pollo popular amongst windsurfing enthusiasts. In 2005, Aglientu, hosted the Kitesurf World Cup in the Vignola's beach.
Sa Istrumpa, also known as Sardinian Wrestling, is a traditional Sardinian sport, officially recognized by the Italian National Olympic Committee (C.O.N.I.) and International Federation of Celtic Wrestling (I.F.C.W.) .

World Heritage Sites

Megalithic building structures called nuraghe are scattered in great number throughout Sardinia. Su Nuraxi di Barumini is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Environment

A wind farm in Sedini (SS)

Paeonia of Gennargentu, flower symbol of Sardinia.

Sardinia is home to a wide variety of rare or uncommon animals and autochthonous plants and animals, such as many species of mammals: the Mediterranean Monk Seal, the Giara's Horse, the Albino Donkey, the Mouflon, the Sardinian Deer, the sardinian fox, and the boar. Found only in Sardinia, Sicily, and the Maghreb, the Sardinian skink (Chalcides ocellatus), known more commonly as the tiligugu, can reach 30 cm (12 in) in length, of which almost half consists of the tail. Conversely, Sardinia lacks many common species such as the viper and the marmot, which are found everywhere else on the European continent. The island has also long been used for grazing flocks of indigenous Sardinian sheep. Sardinia has four endemic subspecies of birds found nowhere else in the world: its Great Spotted Woodpecker (ssp harterti), Great Tit (ssp ecki), Chaffinch (ssp sarda), and Eurasian Jay (ssp ichnusae). It also shares a further 10 endemic subspecies of bird with Corsica. In some cases Sardinia is a delimited part of the species range. For example, the subspecies of Hooded Crow, Corvus cornix ssp cornix occurs in Sardinia and Corsica, but no further south.

The island has some environmental laws, and after an enormous plan of reforestation has become the Italian region with the largest forest extension, with 1,213,250 hectares of woods . The Regional Landscape Plan prohibits new building activities on the coast (except in urban centers), next to forests, lakes or other environmental or cultural sites and the Coastal conservation agency ensures the protection of natural areas on the Sardinian coast. Renewable energies have increased noticeably in recent years , mainly wind power, favoured by the windy climate, but also solar power (Carlo Rubbia, Nobelist in physics, is creating an experimental solar thermal energy central) and biofuel, based on Jatropha oil and Colza oil.

Natural parks and reserves

National and Regional Parks of Sardinia.

Sardinia has three national parks [3]:

• 1. Asinara National Park;
• 2. Archipelago of La Maddalena's National Park;
• 3. Gennargentu National Park .

Ten regional parks:

• 4. Parco del Limbara
• 5. Parco del Marghine e Goceano
• 6. Parco del Sinis - Montiferru
• 7. Parco del Monte Arci
• 8. Parco della Giara di Gesturi
• 9. Parco del Monte Linas - Oridda - Marganai
• 10. Parco dei Sette Fratelli - Monte Genas
• 11. Parco del Sulcis
• Parco naturale regionale di Porto Conte
• Parco regionale Molentargius - Saline

There are 60 wildlife reserves, 5 W.W.F oases, and 25 natural monuments.

See also

• Sardinian language: Gallurese, Sassarese
• History of Sardinia
• Tourist destinations of Sardinia
• List of Sardinians
• List of rulers of Sardinia
• Sardinian archaeological and artistic sites
• Tavolara Island, an island off Olbia, Sardinia, which is a self-proclaimed micronation
• Basilica di Saccargia

Further reading

• Tracey Heatherington. Wild Sardinia: Indigeneity and the Global Dreamtimes of Environmentalism (2010) 314 pages;Examines the clash between conservation efforts and traditional commons; focuses on resistance in the town of Orgosolo to Gennargentu National Park.

References

• UNESCO World Heritage Site inscription data for Su Nuraxi di Barumini (2008) [4]

External links

• Official Sardinia Tourism website in English
• Official regional website in Italian
• Digital Library of Sardinia Autonomous Region
• Template:Wikitravel