Sitting between Europe and Africa, Sardinia's strategic position and rich mineral reserves have brought tidal waves of power-hungry invaders to its shores, and its rugged, impenetrable mountains have attracted everyone from Stone Age men to 19th-century bandits in hiding. Thanks to a certain inward-looking pride and nostalgic spirit, the Sards have not allowed time and the elements to erase their story. Travellers can easily dip into the chapters of the island’s past by exploring tombs, towers, forts and churches.
350,000 BC
Fragments of basic flint tools indicate the first traces of human culture on the island.
4000–2700 BC
Thriving Copper Age communities form around the town of Ozieri. Copper was smelted into ingots and traded, and the first domus de janas (rock tombs) appear.
1800–1500 BC
The nuraghic period: most of the stone ruins that litter Sardinia date back to this time. Some 30,000 fortified stone towers are built.
1500 BC
Sardinia’s most important nuraghe, Nuraghe Su Nuraxi, is built near Barumini.
1100 BC
The Phoenicians establish the town of Nora on the southwest coast, one of a series of important trading posts along with Karalis (Cagliari) and Tharros.
1000 BC
The nuraghic people begin to build elaborate pozzi sacri (sacred wells).
650 BC
Phoenicians build their first inland fortress on Monte Sirai following clashes with Sardinians.
550 BC
The Carthaginians take control of this neck of the Mediterranean. Their influence extends to the island's west and south coast.
227 BC
More than a decade after victory in the First Punic War (264–241 BC), Sardinia becomes a Roman province.
216 BC
The Carthaginians are defeated. The Romans build roads and develop centres at Karalis (Cagliari), Nora, Sulcis, Tharros, Olbia and Turris Libisonis (Porto Torres).
177 BC
Some 12,000 Sardinians die under Roman rule, and some 50,000 are sent to Rome as slaves.
AD 456
In the wake of the fall of the Roman Empire, the Vandals land on Sardinia.
456–534
Byzantine chroniclers, not the most objective, record the almost 80 years of Vandal rule as a time of misery for islanders.
600
Christianity is finally imposed on the Barbagia region, the last to succumb to Byzantine proselytising.
705
Saracens begin a spate of attacks on the island's coastal cities. Sardinia is subjected to raids for several centuries.
1000–1400
Sardinia is divided into four giudicati (provinces), the most famous being the Giudicato d’Arborea, centred on Oristano. The giudicati are eventually incorporated into Pisan and Genoese spheres.
1015
Pisa and Genoa begin their long struggle for control of the island. By the late 13th century, the mainlanders control three-quarters of the island.
1297
In the face of Catalan pressure, Pope Boniface VIII creates the Regnum Sardiniae et Corsicae (Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica) and declares Jaume II of Aragon its king.
1323
The Aragonese invade the southwest coast and take actual possession of the island.
1392
Sardinia’s great heroine and ruler of the Giudicato d’Arborea, Eleonora d’Arborea, publishes the Carta de Logu, the island’s first code of common law.
1400–1500
Under Catalan-Aragonese control, absentee landlords impose devastating taxes and leave the rural population to struggle against famine and plagues, which claim 50% of the island’s population.
1478
On 19 May Sardinian resistance to Aragonese control is crushed at the Battle of Macomer. Led by the Marquis of Oristano, Leonardo de Alagon, Sard forces prove no match for the Iberian army.
1700
The death of the heirless Habsburg ruler Carlos II puts Sardinia up for grabs once again.
1708
English and Austrian forces seize Sardinia from King Felipe V of Spain during the War of the Spanish Succession, a European-wide scramble for the spoils of the rudderless Habsburg Empire.
1720
Duke Vittorio Amedeo II of Savoy becomes King of Piedmont and Sardinia after the island is yo-yoed between competing powers: Austria, then Spain, Austria again, Spain for a second time and finally the Savoys.
1795–99
After Piedmontese authorities deny requests for greater self-rule, angry mobs take to the streets of Cagliari, killing senior Savoy administrators. By 1799 the revolutionary flame has burnt itself out.
1823
Intended to promote land ownership among the rural poor, the Enclosures Act sees the sale of centuries-old communal land and the abolition of communal rights. It’s not popular and riots result.
1840
Legislation is introduced giving the state (the ruling Savoys) control of underground resources, which starts a mining boom.
1847
Requests for the Kingdom of Sardinia, up to this point a separate entity ruled by a viceroy, to be merged with the Kingdom of Piedmont are granted. From this point on, Sardinia is governed from Turin.
1861
In a series of military campaigns led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, King Carlo Emanuele annexes the Italian mainland to create the united Kingdom of Italy.
1915
The Brigata Sassari (Sassari Brigade) is founded and sent into WWI action in the northeastern Alps. Its Sardinian soldiers earn a reputation for valour and suffer heavy losses – 2164 deaths, 12,858 wounded or lost.
1921
The Partito Sardo d’Azione (PSd’Az; Sardinian Action Party) is formed by veterans of the Brigata Sassari. It aims to pursue regional autonomy and politicise the Sardinian public.
1926
Sardinian writer Grazia Deledda wins the Nobel Prize for Literature.
1928–38
As part of Mussolini’s plans to make Italy economically self-sufficient, Sardinia is given a makeover. Large-scale irrigation, infrastructure and land-reclamation projects begin and new towns are established.
1943
Allied bombing raids destroy three-quarters of Cagliari.
1948
Sardinia becomes a semi-autonomous region with a regional assembly, the Giunta Consultativa Sarda, that has control over agriculture, forestry, town planning, tourism and the police.
1946–51
The sinister-sounding Sardinia Project finally rids the island of malaria. The US Army sprays 10,000 tonnes of DDT over the countryside.
1950–70
Sardinia benefits from the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno, a development fund for southern Italy. But improvements in agriculture, education, industry, transport and banking cannot prevent widespread emigration.
1962
The Aga Khan forms the Consorzio della Costa Smeralda to develop a short stretch of northeastern coast. The resulting Emerald Coast kick-starts tourism on the island.
1985
Sassari-born Francesco Cossiga is elected President of the Republic of Italy. He was Minister of the Interior when the Red Brigade (extreme-left terrorists) kidnapped and killed ex-PM Aldo Moro in 1978.
1999
The EU identifies Sardinia as one of a handful of places in Europe in dire need of investment for ‘development and structural upgrading’.
2004
Self-made billionaire Renato Soru is elected president of Sardinia. He sets the cat among the pigeons by banning building within 2km of the coast and taxing holiday homes and mega-yachts.
2008
After 36 years, the US Navy withdraws from the Arcipelago di La Maddalena. It had long divided opinion: friends pointed to the money it brought while critics highlighted the risks of hosting atomic submarines.
2009
Renato Soru is defeated in the February regional election by centre-right candidate Ugo Cappellacci.
2011
In a May referendum, 98% of Sardinians vote against nuclear power. Enel gets the green light to build a 90 megawatt wind farm at Portoscuso.
2013
Cyclone Cleopatra tears across the island, bringing apocalyptic flash floods and storms that kill 18 people and leave thousands homeless. Olbia is the worst affected area.
2014
Fabrizio Aru comes third in the Giro d’Italia in May 2014 – the first time a Sard has ever been on the podium.
When the first islanders arrived and where they came from are questions that have been puzzling researchers for centuries. The most likely hypothesis is that they landed on Sardinia’s northern shores sometime during the lower Palaeolithic period (Old Stone Age). When flint tools were found at Perfugas in 1979, archaeologists muttered excitedly about primitive humans crossing from mainland Italy as far back as 350,000 BC. It’s thought they came from Tuscany, although it’s possible that other waves arrived from North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula via the Balearic Islands. Geneticists have attempted to solve the riddle by researching the island’s curious genetic make-up – in certain parts of the interior a particular gene mutation is found in concentrations only otherwise present in Scandinavia, Bosnia & Hercegovina and Croatia. However, in spite of this research, the geneticists seem just as puzzled as the rest of us.
Wherever the early settlers came from, they were apparently happy with what they found, because by the neolithic period (8000 BC to 3000 BC), Sardinia was home to several thriving tribal communities. The island would have been a perfect home for the average neolithic family – it was covered with dense forests that were full of animals, there were caves for shelter, and the land was suitable for grazing and cultivation. Underlying everything were rich veins of obsidian, a volcanic black stone that was used for making tools and arrow tips. This black gold became the Mediterranean’s most coveted commodity, and was traded across the area – shards of Sardinian obsidian have been found as far away as France.
Most of what we know of this period, known as the Ozieri (or San Michele) culture, comes from findings unearthed in caves around Ozieri and in the Valle Lanaittu. Fragments of ceramics, tools and copper ingots attest to knowledge of smelting techniques and artistic awareness, while early domus de janas (literally ‘fairy houses’; tombs cut into rock) tell of complex funerary rituals. Their menhirs and ancient rock tombs still stand today.
The funerary site of Pranu Muttedu on the central Sarcidano plain offers a deeper insight into Sardinia’s neolithic Ozieri culture, strewn with domus de janas and around 50 menhirs. Another megalithic wonder is Biru ‘e Concas in the Mandrolisai, one of Sardinia’s largest collections of menhirs, with some 200 standing stones in situ. Around 30 of them are lined up east to west, presumably as a symbolic representation of the sun’s trajectory.
A millennium or so after the Ozieri culture came the nuraghic people, whose 7000 nuraghi (Bronze Age towers and fortified settlements) are scattered across the island like pieces of a hard-to-solve puzzle. But according to archaeologists this is just tip of the iceberg stuff, with at least the same number of nuraghi estimated to lie beneath the ground, yet to be discovered. Most of these nuraghi were built between 1800 and 500 BC. These Bronze Age fortified settlements were used as watchtowers, sacred areas for religious rites, and meeting places, and provide some of the few insights into nuraghic civilisation.
The discovery of Mycenaean ceramics in Sardinia and nuraghic pottery in Crete suggest an early trade in tableware and contact with other cultures. Evidence of pagan religious practices are provided by pozzi sacri (well temples). Built from around 1000 BC, these were often constructed so as to capture light at the yearly equinoxes, hinting at a naturalistic religion. The well temple at Santa Cristina is a prime example.
But perhaps the most revealing insights into nuraghic culture come from the bronzetti (bronze figurines) that populate many of Sardinia’s archaeological museums, most notably those in Cagliari and Sassari. Scholars reckon that these primitive depictions of shepherd kings, warriors, farmers and sailors were used as decorative offerings in nuraghic temples.
One thing is certain: Sardinia’s mysterious, unfathomable nuraghi reveal a highly cultured civilisation. The nuraghic people were sophisticated builders, constructing their temples with precisely cut stones and no mortar; they travelled and exchanged (as revealed by the discovery of seal remains and mussel shells inland); and they had the time, skills and resources to stop and build villages, and to dedicate to arts such as ceramics and jewellery.
Sardinia’s strategic position and its rich natural resources (silver and lead reserves) and fertile arable land have long made the island a target of the Mediterranean’s big powers.
The first foreigners on the scene were the enterprising, seafaring Phoenicians (from modern-day Lebanon). The master mariners of their day, they were primarily interested in Sardinia as a staging post – they had colonies on Sicily, Malta, Cyprus and Corsica – so Sardinia was an obvious addition. The exact date of their arrival is unclear, although Semitic inscriptions suggest that Spain-based Phoenicians may have set up at Nora, on the south coast of Sardinia, as early as 1100 BC.
In the early days the Phoenicians lived in relative harmony with the local nuraghic people, who seemed happy enough to leave the newcomers to their coastal settlements – Karalis (Cagliari), Bithia (near modern Chia), Sulci (modern Sant’Antioco), Tharros and Bosa. However, when the outsiders ventured inland and took over the lucrative silver and lead mines in the southwest, the locals took umbrage. Clashes ensued and the Phoenicians built their first inland fortress on Monte Sirai in 650 BC. This proved wise, as disgruntled Sardinians attacked several Phoenician bases in 509 BC.
Against the ropes, the Phoenicians appealed to Carthage for aid. The Carthaginians were happy to oblige and joined Phoenician forces in conquering most of the island. Most, though, not all. As the Carthaginians found out to their cost, and the Romans would discover to theirs, the tough, mountainous area now known as the Barbagia didn’t take kindly to foreign intrusion.
Set against the backdrop of the glittering Mediterranean, the archaeological remains of the mighty Phoenician port Tharros, founded in 730 BC, are one of Sardinia’s most stunning sights. More tangible vestiges of the Phoenicians are visible in Sant’Antioco’s historic centre, littered with necropolises and with an intact tophet, a sanctuary where the Phoenicians and Carthaginians buried their stillborn babies. Monti Sirai near Carbonia also offers a glimpse into the island’s past with its ruined Phoenician fort, built in 650 BC.
It was the Carthaginians, rather than the Phoenicians, who first dragged Sardinia into the Mediterranean’s territorial disputes. By the 6th century BC, Greek dominion over the Mediterranean was being challenged by the North African Carthaginians. So when the Greeks established a base on Corsica, the Carthaginians were happy to accept Phoenician invitations to help them subdue the by-now rebellious Sardinians. It was the foot in the door that the Carthaginians needed to take control of the island and boost their defences against the growing threat from Rome.
The ambitious Roman Republic faced two main challenges to their desire to control the southern Mediterranean: the Greeks and the Carthaginians. The Romans saw off the Greeks first, and then, in 241 BC, turned their attention to Carthaginian-controlled Sardinia.
The Romans arrived in Sardinia buoyed by victory over Carthage in the First Punic War (264–241 BC). But if the legionnaires thought they were in for an easy ride, they were in for a shock. The new team of the Sards and their former enemies, the Carthaginians, were in no mood for warm welcomes. The Romans found themselves frequently battling insurgents, especially in the mountainous Gennargentu area, which they dubbed Barbaria in reluctant homage to the sheer bloody-minded courage of the region’s shepherd inhabitants.
In 215 BC Sardinian tribesmen, under their chieftain Ampsicora, joined the Carthaginians in the Second Punic War and revolted against their Roman masters. But it was a short-lived rebellion, and the following year the rebels were crushed at the second battle of Cornus.
Once they had Sardinia in their hands, the Romans set about shaping it to suit their own needs. Despite endemic malaria and frequent harassment from locals, they expanded the Carthaginian cities, built a road network to facilitate communications and organised a hugely efficient agricultural system. The Romans also severely decreased the island’s population – in 177 BC around 12,000 Sardinians died and as many as 50,000 were sent to Rome as slaves. Many noble families managed to survive and gain Roman-citizen status and learnt to speak Latin, but on the whole, the island remained an underdeveloped and overexploited subject territory.
By the 9th century, the Arabs had emerged as a major force in the Mediterranean. They had conquered much of Spain, North Africa and Sicily, and were intent on further expansion. Sardinia, with its rich natural resources and absentee Byzantine rulers, made for an inviting target and the island was repeatedly raided in the 9th and 10th centuries. But as Arab power began to wane in the early 11th century, so Christian ambition flourished, and in 1015 Pope Benedict VIII asked the republics of Pisa and Genoa to lend Sardinia a hand against the common Islamic enemy. The ambitious princes of Pisa and Genoa were quick to sniff an opportunity and gladly acquiesced to the pope’s requests.
At the time Sardinia was split into four self-governing giudicati (provinces), but for much of the 300-year period between the 11th and 14th centuries, the island was fought over by the rival mainlanders. Initially the Pisans had the upper hand in the north of the island, while the Genoese carried favour in the south, particularly around Cagliari. But Genoese influence was also strong in Porto Torres, and the giudicati swapped allegiances at the drop of a hat. Against this background of intrigue and rivalry, the period was strangely prosperous. The island absorbed the cultural mores of medieval Europe, and powerful monasteries ensured that islanders received the message of Roman Christianity loud and clear. The Pisan-Romanesque basalt churches of the Logudoro in the northwest remain a striking legacy of the period.
Eleonora d’Arborea’s greatest legacy was the Carta de Logu, which she published in 1392. This progressive code, based on Roman law, was far ahead of the social legislation of the period. The code was drafted by her father, Mariano, but Eleonora revised and completed it. To the delight of the islanders, it was published in Sardinian, thus forming the cornerstone of a nascent national consciousness. For the first time the big issues of land use and the right to appeal were codified, and women were granted a whole raft of rights, including the right to refuse marriage and – significantly in a rural society – property rights. Alfonso V was so impressed that he extended its laws throughout the island in 1421, and this remained so until 1871.
Eleonora never saw how influential her Carta de Logu became. She died of the plague in 1404, and the Aragonese took control of Arborea only 16 years after her death. Eleonora remains the most respected historical figure on the island.
Described as Sardinia’s Boudicca or Joan of Arc, Eleonora d’Arborea (1340–1404) was the talismanic figure of Sardinia’s medieval history and embodies the islanders’ deep-rooted fighting soul. As the island’s most inspirational ruler, she is remembered for her wisdom, moderation and enlightened humanity.
Queen of the Giudicato d’Arborea, one of four giudicati – the others were Cagliari, Logudoro (or Torres) in the northwest and Gallura in the northeast – into which the island had been divided, she became a symbol of Sardinian resistance for her unyielding opposition to the Pisans, Genoese and Catalan-Aragonese.
By the end of the 13th century, Arborea was the only giudicato not in the hands of the Pisans and Genoese. The Arboreans, however, toughed it out and actually increased their sphere of influence. At its height under King Marianus IV (1329–76) and Eleonora, the kingdom encompassed all of the modern-day provinces of Oristano and Medio Campidano, as well as much of the Barbagia mountain country.
Initially Arborea had supported the Catalan-Aragonese in their conquering of Cagliari and Iglesias, but when they realised that their allies were bent on controlling the whole island, their support for the foreigners quickly dried up. Eleonora became Giudicessa of Arborea in 1383, when her venal brother, Hugo III, was murdered along with his daughter. Surrounded by enemies within and without (her husband was imprisoned in Aragon), she silenced the rebels and for the next 20 years worked to maintain Arborea’s independence in an uncertain world.
From 1383 to 1404, Eleonora bitterly opposed the Catalan-Aragonese. But she couldn’t live forever and her death in 1404 paved the way for defeat. In 1409 the Sardinians were defeated at the Battle of Sanluri, in 1410 Oristano fell, and in 1420 the exhausted Arborean rulers of the giudicato finally gave in to the inevitable and sold their provinces to the Catalans.
Sardinia has endured millennia of invasion and foreign control, but until 1946 the island’s single-most dangerous enemy was malaria.
Although scientists believe that the disease was probably present in prehistoric times – some maintain that nuraghi were built as defence against weak-flying mosquitoes – it became a serious problem with the arrival of the Carthaginians in the 5th century BC. Keen to exploit the island’s agricultural potential, the colonists cut down swathes of lowland forest to free land for wheat cultivation. One of the effects of this was to increase flooding and create areas of free-standing water, perfect mosquito breeding grounds. The problem was exacerbated by the arrival of imported soldiers from North Africa, many of whom were infected.
By the time the Romans took control of the island in the 3rd century BC, Sardinia was a malarial hothouse, its mal aria (bad air) thought to bring certain death. Despite this, the Romans followed the Carthaginian lead and continued to exploit the island’s fertile terrain. The Campidano plain became, along with Sicily and occupied North Africa, the granary of the entire Roman Empire.
The Rockefeller Foundation Sardinian Project (1946–51) enlisted 32,000 DDT workers to spray 10,000 tons of DDT over the island, which finally wiped out malaria entirely. The effects are still being researched.
Sardinia’s Spanish chapter makes for some grim reading. Spanish involvement in Sardinia dates back as far as the early 14th century. In 1297 Pope Boniface VIII created the Regnum Sardiniae e Corsicae (Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica) and granted it to the Catalan-Aragonese as an inducement to the Spaniards to relinquish their claims on Sicily. Unfortunately, however, the kingdom only existed on paper and the Aragonese were forced to wrench control of Sardinia from the hands of its stubborn islanders. In 1323 the Aragonese invaded the southwest coast, the first act in a chapter that was to last some 400 years.
Under the Catalan-Aragonese and the Spanish, the desperately poor Sardinian population was largely abandoned to itself – albeit on the crippling condition that it pay its taxes – and the island remained underdeveloped. But Spanish power faded in the latter half of the 17th century and the death of the heirless Habsburg ruler Carlos II in 1700 once again put Sardinia up for grabs.
The death of Carlos II triggered the War of the Spanish Succession, which set pro-Habsburg Austrian forces against pro-Bourbon French factions in a battle for the spoils of the Habsburg empire. In 1708 Austrian forces backed by English warships occupied Sardinia. There followed a period of intense politicking as the island was repeatedly passed back and forth between the Austrians and the Spanish, before ending up in the hands of the Duchy of Savoy.
Piedmontese rule (from 1720 to Italian unification in 1861) was no bed of roses, either, but in contrast to their Spanish predecessors, the Savoy authorities did actually visit the areas they were governing. The island was ruled by a viceroy who, by and large, managed to maintain control.
In 1847 the island’s status as a separate entity ruled through a viceroy came to an end. Tempted by reforms that had been introduced in the Savoys’ mainland territories, a delegation requested the ‘perfect union’ of the Kingdom of Sardinia with Piedmont, in the hope of acquiring more equitable rule. The request was granted. At the same time, events were moving quickly elsewhere on the Italian peninsula. In a series of daring military campaigns that were led by Giuseppe Garibaldi and encouraged by King Carlo Emanuele, Sardinia managed to annexe the Italian mainland to create the united Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
Nowhere is the Spanish influence more palpable than in Alghero, which fell to Spanish invaders in 1353 after 30 years of resistance. Even today Catalan is still spoken, and street signs and menus are often in both languages.
Although all but extinct, Sardinia’s mining industry has played a significant role in the island’s history. Southwest Sardinia is riddled with empty mine shafts and abandoned mine works, hollow reminders of a once-booming sector.
Sardinia’s rich mineral reserves were being tapped as far back as the 6th millennium BC. Obsidian was a major earner for early Ozieri communities and a much sought-after commodity. Later, the Romans and Pisans tapped into rich veins of lead and silver in the Iglesias and Sarrabus areas.
The history of Sardinian mining really took off in the mid-19th century. In 1840 legislation was introduced that gave the state (the ruling Savoys) control of underground resources, while allowing surface land to remain in private hands. This, combined with an increased demand for raw materials fuelled by European industrial expansion, started a mining boom on the island.
By the late 1860s there were 467 lead, iron and zinc mines in Sardinia, and at its peak the island was producing up to 10% of the world’s zinc.
Inward investment had spillover effects. The birth of new towns, the introduction of electricity, construction of schools and hospitals – these were all made possible thanks to mining money.
But however much material conditions improved, the life of a miner was still desperately hard, and labour unrest was not uncommon – strikes were recorded in southwest Sardinia at Montevecchio in 1903, and a year later at Buggerru. The burgeoning post-WWI socialist movement attempted to further politicise Sardinia’s mine workers, but without any great success.
One is landlocked and famous for its mountains, the other is an island and renowned for its coastline. Apart from both being small and beautiful, Switzerland and Sardinia, some 1000km apart, appear to have little in common on the face of things. But that hasn't stopped Andrea Caruso, the co-founder of the Canton Marittimo (Maritime Canton) movement, from garnering support from independence seekers who would like the island to become the 27th Swiss canton.
Disillusioned with the island's future in the face of high unemployment, bureaucracy and a system that they claim has 'squandered economic potential and disenfranchised the ordinary citizen', the movement says that Sardinia becoming part of Switzerland would be 'common sense'. They believe that Switzerland would bring the island the efficiency, economic wealth and direct democracy it needs.
Dismissed by some as bonkers and hailed by others as a brainwave, the plea for Rome to sell the island to Switzerland has certainly caught the attention of the public and the press and, at the time of writing, the Canton Marittimo Facebook page had more than 10,000 'likes' and counting. But though an online poll of 4000 German-speaking Swiss found that 93% would be in favour of Sardinia becoming the 27th canton, the Costa del Alps is, in real terms, still a distant dream.
Following the worldwide recession sparked off by the 1929 Wall Street Crash, the Sardinian mining industry enjoyed something of a boom under the Fascists. Production was increased at Montevecchio, and the Sulcis coalmines were set to maximum output. In 1938 the town of Carbonia in southwest Sardinia was built to house workers from the Sirai-Serbariu coalfield.
Mining output remained high throughout Italy’s post-WWII boom years, but demand started to decline rapidly in the years that followed. Regular injections of public money couldn’t stop the rot, which was further exacerbated by high production costs, the poor quality of the minerals and falling metal prices. One by one the mines were closed and, as of 2008, Sardinia’s only operative mine is Nuraxi Figus, near Carbonia.
Sardinia’s martial spirit found recognition on a wider stage in the early 20th century. The island’s contributions to Italy’s campaigns in WWI are legendary. In 1915 the Brigata Sassari was formed and immediately dispatched to the northeastern Alps. The regiment was made up entirely of Sards, who quickly distinguished themselves in the merciless slaughter of the trenches. It is reckoned that Sardinia lost more young men per capita on the front than any other Italian region, and the regiment was decorated with four gold medals.
A less salubrious chapter is the island’s tradition of banditry, which had reached epidemic proportions by the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially in the Province of Sassari. The crusade to bring the bandits to justice was one the government was destined to lose as poverty and an inhospitable environment fuelled banditry throughout the 20th century.
The town of Orgosolo, deep in Barbagia hill country, earned a reputation as a hotbed of lawlessness, and as recently as the 1990s gangs of kidnappers were still operating in its impenetrable countryside. Between 1960 and 1992, 621 people were kidnapped in Italy, 178 of them in Sardinia. Though Orgosolo has left this dark chapter of its past behind it, the town is now a canvas for vibrant, politically charged murals.
WWI was a watershed for Sardinia. Not only in terms of lives lost and horrors endured, but also as a political awakening. When Sardinian soldiers returned from the fighting in 1918, they were changed men. They had departed as illiterate farmers and returned as a politically conscious force. Many joined the new Partito Sardo d’Azione (PSd’Az; Sardinian Action Party), founded in Oristano in 1921 by Emilio Lussu and fellow veterans of the Brigata Sassari (the Sardinian regiment that served in WWI).
The party’s central policy was administrative autonomy, embracing the burgeoning sense of regional identity that was spreading throughout the island. This led many to start viewing Sardinia as a region with its own distinct culture, aspirations and identity.
But a call for autonomy was just one of the cornerstones of the party’s political manifesto. Combining socialist themes (a call for social justice and development of agricultural cooperatives) with free-market ideology (the need for economic liberalism and the removal of state protectionism), it created a distinct brand of Sardinian social-democratic thought.
When Homer wrote about hero Odysseus smiling ‘sardonically’ when being attacked by one of his wife’s former suitors, he was surely alluding to a grin in the face of danger. Yet the word sardonic, from the Greek root sardánios, has come to mean simply ‘scornful’ or ‘grimly mocking’ in today’s usage.
If recent scientific findings are anything to go by, Homer may have been on the right track with his hint at danger. Studies carried out by scientists at the University of Eastern Piedmont in 2009 identified hemlock water dropwort (Oenanthe crocata) as being responsible for the sardonic smile from, of course, Sardinia. It seems that in pre-Roman times, ritual killings were carried out using the toxic perennial (known locally as ‘water celery’). The elderly, infirm and indeed anyone who had become a burden to society were intoxicated with the poisonous brew, which made their facial muscles contract into a maniacal sardonic grin, before being finished off by being pushed from a steep rock or savagely beaten.
Regardless of whether the word sardonic refers to this sinister prehistoric malpractice, it seems that the findings could have positive implications in the field of medicine. Some scientists believe that the molecule in hemlock water dropwort could be modified by pharmaceutical companies to have the opposite effect, working as a muscle relaxant to help people to recover from facial paralysis.
WWII left Sardinia shattered. The island was never actually invaded, but Allied bombing raids in 1943 destroyed three-quarters of Cagliari. Worse still, war isolated the island. The ferry between the mainland and Olbia was knocked out of action and did not return to daily operation until 1947. As a result of the political upheavals that rocked Italy in the aftermath of the war – in a 1946 referendum the nation voted to dump the monarchy and create a parliamentary republic – Sardinia was granted autonomy in 1948.
Until malaria was eradicated in the mid-20th century, visitors (at least those with peaceful intent) were few and far between. DH Lawrence famously grumped his way round the island in 1921, and his words paint a fairly depressing picture of poverty and isolation. Were he to return today, he’d find a very different island. Poverty still exists, particularly in the rural interior, and unemployment remains a serious issue (in 2016 it stood at 15.9%), but despite that the island has changed almost beyond recognition.
Before the Aga Khan ‘discovered’ the Costa Smeralda in the late 1950s and developed it together with a consortium of international high-rollers in the 1960s, Gallura’s northeastern coast was a rocky backwater, barely capable of supporting the few shepherds who lived there. Now the Costa Smeralda (Emerald Coast) is one of the world’s glitziest destinations; its beaches are a playground for Russian oligarchs, celebrities, supermodels and VIPs, including former Formula One racing manager Flavio Briatore.
Dubbed the Sardinian Bill Gates, self-made billionaire Renato Soru has been central to tourism in the island’s recent past. He founded the internet company Tiscali in 1998, was listed as one of the world's richest people by Forbes in 2001, entered politics in 2003 and was voted regional president a year later, a position he held until February 2009. But away from the controversial ‘luxury tax’ and Salvacoste (Save the Coast) ban on coastal development, Soru's lasting achievements include overseeing the withdrawal of US atomic naval forces from the environmentally sensitive Arcipelago di La Maddalena after 35 years. This divided local opinion, with environmentalists and Soru fans applauding the move, and business owners mourning the loss of free-spending American sailors.
The tides turned, however, in May 2016 when the high-flying entrepreneur and leftist politician was given a three-year jail sentence by a court in Cagliari for tax evasion amounting to €2.6 million.