The Giudicato of Calaris (Cagliari)

This included today’s Provinces of Cagliari, and Carbonia-Iglesias and part of Ogliastra. The pasturelands, cereal crops of the Campidano and the metals of the Iglesiente and Sarrabus areas made the Giudicato of Cagliari the richest of the 4 kingdoms. Its capital was Santa Igia, which was already a thriving settlement in the VIII century, situated on the shores of the lagoon of Santa Gilla, in a strategic position allowing defence against pirate attacks.

Around 1080 the Judge of Cagliari Torchitorio I favoured the arrival of the Victorine monks from Marseilles who built no less than 28 churches in southern Sardinia some of which were true masterpieces of Romanesque architecture (some examples are the splendid Santa Maria di Uta, Uta, Santa Sibiola, Serdiana and San Platano, Villaspeciosa).

In the centuries following the year 1000, Pisa and Genoa intensified their trade with the Giudicati. These centuries were marked by commercial development and the construction of important buildings (churches and castles) but also by frequent internecine strife among the Giudicati, waged by the Judges supported by the Pisans or the Genoese, and aimed at overthrowing one or other of the Judges.

In 1217 the Pisan Ubaldo Visconti occupied Santa Igia and began building, on a nearby hill, the fortress of Castel di Castro (today’s Castello quarter in Cagliari).

In 1257 the kingdom of Cagliari ceased to exist and Cagliari came under the direct control of Pisa. Cagliari’s Cathedral, situated on the heights of Castel di Castro, was built at that time by the Tuscans.

The Pisans and the monks who followed them introduced into Sardinia the first examples of Gothic architecture, whose most important examples in southern Sardinia are the Cathedrals of Cagliari and Iglesias, the Basilica of S. Pantaleo at Dolianova, and the Church of S. Maria at Tratalias.

In 1325 the Aragonese, who had landed in the Sulcis in 1323, conquered Castel di Castro. The same year they started constructing a church on the hill of Bonaria, site of the Aragonese camp during the siege of Castello, and they set up the Aragonese mint at Iglesias, where all the silver mined in the Iglesiente area was conveyed.

The Giudicato of Torres (or Logudoro)

This kingdom, which extended over today’s Province of Sassari and the northern portions of the Provinces of Oristano and Nuoro, had its capital at Torres (Sassari). Around the year 1000 we find mention of Gonario Comita, Judge of Torres and Arborea, whose successor was Barisone I; he welcomed to the area the Cistercian monks and his grandson, Constantine I ordered the construction of the splendid Basilica of Saccargia (Province of Sassari).

In 1257 the Giudicato of Torres ceased to exist: its territories came under the control of the Pisans and Genoese until the conquest of the island by the Aragonese (1410).

The Giudicato of Gallura

This kingdom covered most of today’s Provinces of Oristano and Medio Campidano and also part of the Barbagie. Its capital, originally Tharros, was moved to Oristano in 1076; in that period the Pisans strengthened their influence over the kingdom, a situation which lasted until around 1320 when Marianus III of Arborea, seeking an ally to help rid himself of Pisan domination, sought an alliance with James II of Aragon.

The Giudicato of Arborea

In 1323 the Aragonese landed in the Sulcis and were supported by the Giudicato of Arborea, which helped them defeat the Pisans in southern Sardinia. In 1353 friction between Arborea and Aragon led to war, and after a temporary agreement, hostilities broke out once again in 1364, when many of the Sardinian nobility sided with Arborea, thus forming what might be called the first pan-Sardinian alliance. In 1366 the troops of Arborea conquered southern Sardinia and Iglesias but their progress was halted at Monteleone by Brancaleone Doria, who in that same year by marrying Eleanor of Arborea, daughter of Marianus IV, became his ally.

In 1383 Eleanor of Arborea became regent of the Giudicato until the eighteenth birthday of her son; she attempted to reach an agreement with Aragon but Brancaleone, who had gone to the court of Barcelona with that aim in mind, was arrested and imprisoned in Cagliari and released only in 1390. Negotiations led to the peace of Sanluri of 1388, as a result of which all the lands conquered by Arborea were returned to Aragon.

In 1391 the Sardinians re-occupied the territories handed back under the peace of 1388. The Aragonese put up strong resistance at Cagliari and Alghero and the war dragged on for more than a decade. In 1392 Eleanor promulgated the Carta de Logu, the first Sardinian legal code; she died in 1402, probably of the plague.

Arborea and Aragon clashed in a bloody battle at Sanluri on 30 June 1409. The Sardinian troops were defeated by the forces of Martin the Younger, a defeat which marked the end of the Giudicato of Arborea. It was but poor consolation for the Sardinians – subjected to a rigid feudal system – when in that same year Martin died of malaria.

The portraits of Eleanor of Arborea and Brancaleone Doria are sculpted in the reliefs of the fourteenth century Church of San Gavino (Municipality of San Gavino – for visits to the church, call 070.9339220).