Explore Assemini

The Tuvixeddu Necropolis is a Punic cemetery on a limestone hill in the Sant'Avendrace district of Cagliari. Between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC the Carthaginians cut shaft tombs, two to eleven metres deep, into the rock, some with painted chambers; the Romans later added tombs of their own. Since 2014 the area has been a public park with paths among the tombs.

The Roman Amphitheatre of Cagliari was built in the 2nd century AD in a small valley on the slopes of the Buon Cammino hill, its tiers of seats partly cut into the rock. It staged gladiator fights, animal hunts and executions. Used for centuries as a quarry, it was excavated in the 19th century; visitors see the arena, its corridor and the rooms where animals were kept.

The Torre dell'Elefante is a limestone tower built in 1307 by the Sardinian architect Giovanni Capula as part of the Pisan walls of Cagliari's Castello quarter. It takes its name from the small marble elephant above its gateway. The north side is open, showing four wooden floors, and visitors climb up through them to the terrace at the top.

The Palazzo Regio is the former palace of the viceroys of Sardinia, on Piazza Palazzo in Cagliari's Castello quarter next to the cathedral. Begun by the Pisans in the 13th century, it was rebuilt in the 18th century under the House of Savoy and housed the royal family from 1799 to 1815. Today it is the seat of the Metropolitan City of Cagliari.

Cagliari Cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Saint Cecilia, stands on Piazza Palazzo in the Castello quarter. Built by the Pisans in the 13th century, it became the archbishop's seat in 1258, gained Baroque chapels in the 17th and 18th centuries and its neo-Romanesque façade in the 1930s. Beneath the presbytery lies the Sanctuary of the Martyrs.

The Basilica of San Saturnino in Cagliari's Villanova district stands in an early Christian cemetery over the burial place of Saint Saturninus, martyred in 304. First built in the 4th–5th century and rebuilt in the 6th as a domed Greek-cross church, it was remodelled by monks from Marseille and reconsecrated in 1119. The domed centre and its eastern arm survive.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria stands on the Bonaria hill in Cagliari and has been cared for by the Mercedarian friars since 1335. It joins a small 14th-century church, home to the wooden statue of the Madonna said to have come ashore in 1370, with the larger basilica beside it. Our Lady of Bonaria is the patron saint of Sardinia.