Overview

The San Pancrazio Space is one of the exhibition venues of the National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari and is located within the Citadel of Museums. The collection of stone material, coats of arms and artefacts, dating from the 13th century onwards, from which the urban and social evolution of the city can be reconstructed, comes to the museum thanks to donations, random finds, acquisitions from private collections and recoveries during demolition or restoration.
The bastion of San Pancrazio was built on the orders of Viceroy Don Joan Dusay between 1501 and 1503 in order to protect the northern gate of Cagliari from possible sieges. The coat of arms engraved on the entrance archway shows the three viceroy triglia.
With the development of firearms, however, this defensive system has become obsolete. During the 18th century, various changes were made to the bastion's interior: the Altamira gate that interrupted the passage from the courtyard to the inside of the bastion, its transformation into a military prison and, in 1824, into a hospital for prison inmates. In 1897, the complex was decommissioned and, after being used as a repository for excavation materials by the Superintendency of Archaeology, underwent renovations in the 1990s that allowed it to be used as an exhibition venue.

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