Sardinia
For the place in the United States, see Sardinia, Ohio.Sardinia (
American pronunciation)(
Sardegna in
Italian,
Sardigna or
Sardinna in the
Sardinian language, is the second largest island in the
Mediterranean Sea (
Sicily is the largest), between
Italy,
Spain and
Tunisia, south of
Corsica. It forms part of Italy and it's one of the five autonomous regions of Italy (the others are Veneto, Sicily, Trentino Alto-Adige, Valle D'Aosta and Friuli Venezia-Giulia).
At the beginning of the nuragic age circa
1500 BC the island was first called
Hyknusa (latinized
Ichnusa) by the
Mycenaeans probably meaning island (
nusa) of the
Hyksos, the people who had just been expelled by
Ahmose I of
Egypt circa
1540 BC.
Sandalyon was its second name, probably due to its shape, recalling a footprint. Last and present name has been Sardinia, for the
Shardana (whose invasion on
Egypt was defeated by
Ramesses III circa
1180 BC).
Sardinia has an area of 24,090 km
2 and a population of 1.65 million. The regional capital is
Cagliari. The region is divided into eight provinces:
Cagliari,
Sassari,
Nuoro,
Oristano,
Olbia-Tempio,
Ogliastra,
Carbonia-Iglesias and
Medio Campidano.
See also: Sardinian townsSardinia is one of two Italian regions whose inhabitants have been recognised as a "popolo" (i.e. a distinct people) by the Italian Parliament. The other region is Veneto.
The island contains numerous extraordinary tourist areas, including the
Costa Smeralda and
Gennargentu. The island is particularly famous for its
beaches, but is also rich in other interesting places, such as some charming sea towns and archeological ruins. See also:
Tourist destinations of Sardinia.
The
launeddas is unique to Sardinia. See:
Music_of_Sardinia.
The
climate is mainly Mediterranean, with a warm spring and fall, hot summer, and mild winter.
The most spoken languages in Sardinia are Italian and
Sardinian, a
Romance language of
Latin origin, but with an obscure
Pre-Roman element, including
Phoenician,
Etruscan, and Near Eastern languages. While it has been significantly supplanted by Italian for official purposes, Sardinian is still widely spoken and, stemming from a long history of oral tradition, is used culturally for songs, and poetry. As a literary language, it is gaining clout, despite heated debate about the lack of standard orthography and controversial proposed solutions to this problem. Recently, the regional administration has approved the use of Sardinian in official documents.
In the northern regions of Gallura and Sassari, Gallurese (
Gadduresu) and Sassarese (
Sassaresu) are respectively spoken. These spoken languages were spread by the first settlers from Corsica, giving origin to a new variety of language
Sardinian-Corsican language, stictly connected with southern
Corsican dialects (
Sartinesu). In the island of
San Pietro, the language spoken is from Liguria
Genoa. In the city of
Alghero in the north, a dialect of
Catalan is spoken (the name of the city in Catalan is
L'Alguer) as the island was an
Aragonese colony in the past.
Sardinia's currency (as a part of Italy) is now the
Euro, called francu in Sardinian.
Several
gold and
silver mines operate on the island.
The Sardinian economy is today focused on
tourism (peaking with the
Costa Smeralda), industry, commerce, services and
information technology; an increasing income is coming from its famous
wines and gastronomy.
Trains on Sardinia connect the whole island but are rather slow. Some run on
narrow gauge track. Many tourists catch the
trenino verde which runs through the wildest parts of the island. It is slow but it allows the traveller to have scenic views impossible to see from the main road. The train connects Cagliari to Arbatax in the south and Sassari to Palau in the north. It is highly recommended to make the trip from Macomer to Bosa Marina, where the train winds its way through the typical Sardinian landscape to reach the sea near the coastal town of Bosa situated in the west of the island.
Sardinia is a precious natural resource, containing thousands of rare or uncommon animals and plant species such as the
Mediterranean Monk Seal and the
boar. It lacks many common species however, like the
viper and the
marmot, which are found everywhere else on the continent.
Sardinia's history is very ancient. In
1979 human remains were found that were dated to
150,000 BCE.
In
Prehistory Sardinia's inhabitants developed a trade in
obsidian, a stone used for the production of the first rough tools, and this activity brought Sardinians into contact with most of the
Mediterranean people.Desiccated grapes, recently found in several locations, were DNA tested and proved to be the oldest grapes in the world, dating back to 1200 BCE, the Pyramids' and Mesopotamia's era. The Cannonau wine is made with these grapes and may qualify as the mother of all the European wines.
From
Neolithic times until the
Roman Empire, the
Nuragic civilisation took shape on the island. Still today, more than 9,000
Nuraghe survive. It is speculated that, among others, the
Shardana people landed in Sardinia coming from the eastern Mediterranean. Shardana had joined the
Shekelesh and others to form the coalition of the
Sea Peoples, but were defeated by
Ramesses III around 1180 BC in Egypt. Shardana and Shekelesh were also called by the Egyptians as the "people from the faraway islands", implying that Shardana were already residents of Sardinia at the time of the Egyptian expedition. This assertion holds some truth; in fact most of the
tombe dei giganti have a tombstone shaped like a ship vertically dug into the ground, bearing witness to their sea traveling activities.According to some linguistic studies, the town of
Sardis in (
Lydia) would have been their starting point from which they would have reached the
Tyrrhenian Sea, dividing into what were to become the Sardinians and the
Etruscans.
However most theories regarding the original population of Sardinia have been formulated prior to genetics research and in the traditional frame of east-west movements. Genetics seem to show Sardinia's population to be genetically quite distant than their neighbors. This is principally due to
genetic drift, though other reasons, such as ties with
pre-Indo-European neolithic peoples may also have contributed to this distance.
The density, extensiveness and sheer size of the architectural remains from the
Neolithic period, points to a considerable population of the island.
Beginning around
1000 BC,
Phoenician mariners established several ports of trade on the Sardinian coast. In
509 BC, war broke out between the native Nuragic people and the Phoenician settlers. The settlers called for help from
Carthage, and the island became a province in the Carthaginian Empire. In
238 BC, after being defeated by the
Roman Republic during the
First Punic War, Carthage ceded Sardinia to Rome.
From
456 -
534, Sardinia was a part of the short-lived kingdom of the
Vandals in North Africa, until reconquered by the
Byzantine emperor
Justinian I. Under the Byzantines, the imperial representative was a judge who governed from the southern city of
Caralis. Byzantine rule was practically nonexistent in the mountainous
Barbagia region in the eastern part of the island, and an independent kingdom persisted there from the sixth through ninth centuries.
Beginning in the eighth century,
Arabs and
Berbers began raiding Sardinia. Especially after the conquering of
Sicily in
832, the Byzantines were unable to effectively defend their most distant province, and the provincial judge assumed independent authority. To provide for local defense, he divided the island into four
Giudicati,
Gallura,
Logudoro,
Arborea, and Caralis. By 900, these districts had become four independent constitutional monarchies. At various times, these fell under the sway of
Genoa and
Pisa. In
1323, the
Kingdom of Aragon began a campaign to conquer Sardinia; the giudicato of Arborea successfully resisted this and for a time came to control nearly the entire island, but its last ruler
Eleanor of Arborea, was eventually defeated by the Aragonese in the decisive
Battle of Sanluri,
June 30 1409. The native population of the city of
Alghero (
S'Alighera in Sardinian,
L'Alguer in Catalan) was expelled and the city repopulated by the Catalan invaders, whose descendants still speak
Catalan. After the merge of the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, Sardinia was incorporated into the newly created national entity, Spain.
Under Spain, Sardinians were regularly employed on the royal Spanish fleet. On
October 7 1571, at the
Battle of Lepanto, Sardinian mariners on Board the admiralship of
Infante Don John of Austria, half brother of
Felipe II, boarded the Turkish admiralship, overpowered the crew, and cut off the head of a Turkish admiral. The sight of the admiral's head on a spear put such a fear in the heart of the Turks, that they abandoned the fight and completely surrendered to Christians. This was the first time Turks lost out to Europeans signaling a trend of military decline and defeats from which Turks never recovered.
Kingdom of Sardinia
In
1718 Sardinia became an 'independent' [vassal] kingdom under the
House of Savoy, rulers of
Piedmont.
In
1792,
Jean-Paul Marat, son of a Sardinian father from Cagliari and a Swiss mother, was one of the triumvirate leading the
French Revolution.
In
1860,
Vittorio Emanuele II,
King of Sardinia became also the first King of
Italy after conquering the rest of the peninsula.
* Cheese filled with live
grubs and their feces is a delicacy in Sardinia. This cheese is called
Casu Marzu.
* The phrase sardonic grin comes the grimace found on victims of those poisoned by a certain herb found in Sardinia which contains strychnine-like alkaloids. It is said that family members would poison the infirm and elderly with the herb when the family was no longer able to afford to take care of them.
*
Sardinian language:
Sardu logudoresu,
Sardu campidanesu,
Gallurese,
Sassarese*
History of Sardinia*
Tourist destinations of Sardinia*
List of Sardinians*
Sardinian archaeological and artistic sites*
Tavolara Island, an island kingdom near Sardinia
*
Official regional website in Italian*
Webzine about Sardinia*
A guide to Sardinia
