|where to sleep|where to eat|night- life|who to contact|guides|
Alghero is one of the most important tourist poles of the Sardinia.v
It is a linguistic island: in the city they speak the Catalan , that was introduced from the Spanish rulers in the course of more than 400 years of government.
The historical center, with the ancient Aragonese palaces, the walls , the towers, the beaches, the coves, the reefs and the night- life, permit to Alghero being a unique city.
TO SEE:
>>archaeology:
|necropolis of Santu Pedru|necropolis of Anghelu Ruiu|nuragical complex of Sant’ Imbenia|nuragical complex of Palmavera|
>>museums:
|museum of the Cantina Sella e Mosca|
>>architecture:
|town-walls|tower of the Esperò Reial|fort de the Magdalena|
>>churches:
|Cathedral of Santa Maria|Church and cloister of San Francesco|
>>nature:
|Capo Caccia|caves of Neptune
- to arrive:
>>International airport of Fertilia away 10 km from the city >>Tourist port
>>from Cagliari: Statal Road 131 until Sassari, then follow the indications
>>from Olbia: Statal Road 597 towards Sassari, then follow the indications
economy: tourism, food industries, chemical and vitiwine industries; handicraft activities
inhabitants: 42,000
extension: 224.4 kmq
altitude: 7m s.l.m.
geographic position: situated in the north-western Sardinia, to the southern extremity of Nurra, it is placed to 35 km from Sassari in front of the Gulf of Alghero
city landscape
the city has a beautiful historical nucleus, almost intact, but also modern suburban areas.
The city system conserves numerous proofes of the Aragonese and Spanish domination: the parts of the town-walls, the defensive towers, the palaces to private use and the valuable religious monuments.
Leaving from the Sulis public square, that is the center of “the algherese life”, we find the massive shape of the tower of the Esperò Reial, one of the towers that was a part of the algherese town-walls. From this point, covering the sea-front in hour sense, we meet the tower of San Giacomo, the tower of Sant’ Elmo, that one of the Maddalena, the tower of Porta Terra and the tower of San Giovanni.
Between one tower and the other they are today still visible the curtains-walls and the bastions: these protected Alghero, the true Aragonese fort in the Island.
The churches and the palaces with the spanish balconies in struck iron, the narrow roads with the pavement, the little squares, the Catalan names of the roads and many pubs give to the historical center of Alghero an unmistakable aspect.
the nature
in the outskirtses of Alghero beaches, reefs and caves, islands, ponds and the only small natural lake of Sardinia.
Capo Caccia is one magnificent limestone reef that fells perpendicularly on the sea.
Over Capo Caccia, towards Nord-Ovest it is placed the Island of Foradada, a beautiful sharp rock just in front of the Cove of Neptune.
The Cove of Neptune, famous not only in Sardinia, is one of the most beautiful of the Island.
The” Bombarde”: they are beautiful beaches set in the cliffs not many kilometers away from the center.
On the whole coast between Alghero and the peninsula of Capo Caccia it grows spontaneous a particular vegetation, that find seldom itself in other zones of the Sardinia: the dwarf palm and the centaury are the two species that more characterize the coastal landscape.
The pond of Calich and the lake of Baratz are two interesting humid zones for the presence of rare birds.
The whole area that from Alghero arrives until the Porticciolo is exposed to the tie of the Regional Natural Park of Porto Conte for its naturalistic importance.
Also the man has helped to make beautiful the algherese country with the system of vineyards and olive-yards.
historical notices:
the zone of Alghero was inhabited since the prehistory: the necropolis of Anghelu Ruju, going back more than 5000 years ago, the nuragical village of Palmavera (1500-1000 a.C.) and the ancient rests of Roman vestiges , testify a continuous presence of the man in these places.
According to the historians, Alghero was born in the first half of the XI century, when the powerful Genoese family of the Doria fortified a village of fishermen and made of it an important fort for the strategic position in the center of the Western Mediterranean.
The name of Alghero comes from the great amount of seeweades, that the sea amassed to the river: therefore that place was called the Aleguerium, from which it comes the name Alghero.
Until the 1353 the city remained in Genoese’ hands.
In the 1354 it fell into the Catalan-Aragoneses’ hands, after the naval battle of Porto Conte, lost by the Genoese.
The first action of the Catalan government was to expel the Sardinians and the Ligurian from the city, introducing in Alghero a colony of Catalans.
Alghero was a Spanish city for approximately four centuries and in that period it covered an important strategic role: in the 1501 it deserved the title of “faithful “and in the 1541 it received the visit of the Spanish monarch Carlo V.
In the last war the city was seriously shot from the shellings, that caused serious destructions also in the heart of the historical center.