Monumental Cemetery of Bonaria

The Monumental Cemetery of Bonaria is located close to the hill of the same name, on an area formerly used as a necropolis already during the Punic-Roman and early Christian ages of the city .

Near the main entrance of the cemetery, until the beginning of the 20th century, there was the Benedictine church of Santa Maria de Portu (later of S.Bardilio) built in the eleventh century, with following transformations. The Cemetery of Bonaria was designed by Captain Luigi Damiano, divided in four regular squares, and inaugurated on the 1st of January 1829. 

In the earliest times in Cagliari there was the habit to bury in churches or in areas immediately adjacent , often with significant hygienic problems .

Already during the cholera epidemic of 1816 it was necessary to find some emergency areas adjacent to the city for use as a burial place , so the need for a large town cemetery was particularly felt . Just thirty years after its inauguration, the cemetery was already inadequate, consequently it was commissioned  to the architect Gaetano Cima the  design of a first extension , which was followed by others that brought the area to reach the top of the hill. A special area was set  for non-Catholics , British, French, German Protestants and Anglicans .

Today the cemetery of Bonaria is a large outdoor art gallery that collects sculptures by artists from Sardinia and from all over the Country operating in Cagliari ( Fadda , Sartorio , Sarrocchi Galavoni ) from the second half of the nineteenth century to the first decades of the twentieth century . In this unique art gallery it is possible to admire  a peculiar variety of styles, from neoclassicism to realism , symbolism and art nouveau . This  so varied artistic production reflects the taste of the city of the late nineteenth century , culturally vibrant and economically active for the presence of businessmen from the north of Italy and from abroad.