has been reserved for a more particular notice than we have been able to
afford most others, both on account of its importance, and its having
much engaged the attention of the master-mind most conversant with the
situation of affairs. At the outset of our rambles in Sardinia, it was
observed that the Sardes are averse to maritime occupations; the Iliese
of La Madelena, who are so employed to some extent, being a distinct
race. Sardinia has no mercantile marine. Signor Sala states that there
are only four or five vessels belonging to natives, and, of these, two
are the property of the same rich owner. Considering the advantages of
her position, and the products the island is capable of supplying for an
active commerce, he considers the want of a mercantile marine one of
Sardinia's greatest misfortunes, and treats with much good sense of the
means calculated to promote its establishment.[75]
General La Marmora drew attention to the subject in a pamphlet published
at Cagliari in 1850, under the title of _Questioni marittimi spettanti
all'isola di Sardegna_; and resumed the subject in 1856, in another
work, which he was so obliging as to give me, when at Cagliari, in 1857.
It originated in the expected completion of the line of Electric
Telegraph between Algeria, Sardinia, Corsica, and the continent of
Europe; its connexion with which, and its bearings on commerce, I may
have to refer to on a future occasion. The General comments on the
extraordinary fact, that, in an island 800 miles in circumference, there
only exist four sea-ports, properly so called. These are Cagliari, on
the south coast, Terranova, on the east, Porto-Torres, on the north, and
Alghero on the west. All the other villages and towns on the coast stand
more or less distantly from it, and cannot be called maritime. He
considers this depopulation of the coast as the deplorable consequence
of the devastations of the Saracen corsairs, and the continual piracy
which was carried on to a late period, and only ceased on the conquest
of Algeria by the French.
It would be foreign to our province to detail the projects which General
La Marmora suggests, or advocates, for giving expansion to the commerce
of Sardinia,—such as the establishment of light-houses on Cape
Spartivento, and other points; improvements in the harbour of Cagliari,
and a better supply of the place with water. He considers the now almost
deserted town and port of Terranova, at the head of the fine gulf _Degli
Aranci_, on the north-eastern coast, to be a point of great importance
from its position in face of the Italian ports, and as the proper
station for the postal steamboats communicating between Genoa and the
island of Sardinia. In reference to this, he mentions that the project
of a law for encouraging colonisation in the island, was presented by
the Minister to the Chamber of Deputies in February, 1856; the proposal
being to grant 60,000 hectares of the national domains to a company
formed for establishing agrarian colonies. The cabinet of Turin, then,
are alive to one of the great wants of Sardinia,—an increased and
industrious agricultural population. But General La Marmora desires that
a part of the colonists should be maritime, drawn from La Madalena,
Genoa, and other ports, and settled at the proposed new harbour of
Terranova.
By these and other aids, the General is sanguine that Sardinia will, ere
long, take the place naturally belonging to it among maritime countries,
and he repeats as a motto to his recent pamphlet, a sentence from the
first edition of his _Voyage en Sardaigne_, published in 1826, to which,
he remarks, recent events have almost given the character of a
prediction in the course of speedy accomplishment:—_Qui sait si un jour,
par suite des progrès que fait depuis quelque temps l'Egypte moderne, le
commerce des Indes Orientales ne prendra pas la route de la Mer-Rouge et
de Suez? La Sardaigne, alors, ne pourrait-elle pas devenir la plus belle
et la plus commode échelle de la Méditerranée?_
The cabinet of Turin and the national legislature must be well disposed
to foster the commerce and agriculture, the natural resources, and
social interests of the Sardes. Should the Ministers be negligent or
ill-advised, the representatives of the people, or, in the last resort,
the Sarde constituencies, have their constitutional remedy. British
institutions are said to be models imitated in the young commonwealth.
They present similar features; and let it be recollected what influence
either the Irish or the Scotch members, acting in concert in our House
of Commons, can bring to bear on any question affecting the interests of
their respective countries. The Sardes return twenty-four deputies to
the popular chamber, and if they be good men and true, inaccessible to
intrigue, and find in their patriotism a bond of union, their united
votes cannot be disregarded by any Minister.
How different is the case of Corsica, the sister island! In reviewing
her industrial position we quoted rather largely from a _Procès-Verbal_
of the deliberations of the Council-General, also an elective body,
which canvasses, but not regulates, the internal administration of the
island. It arrives at certain conclusions, but without any power to give
them effect. “Le Conseil-Général émet le vœu,” “appelle l'attention,”
are the phrases wherewith, with bated breath, the representatives of the
people convey their resolutions to the foot of the throne. The courtly
Prefect communicates them to the Minister of the Interior, and he, the
organ of the Imperial will, rejects, confirms, or modifies the “vœu.”
The Sarde representatives meet the Ministers face to face in the
Parliament at Turin, demand, discuss, explain, remonstrate, carry their
point, or are content to yield to a majority of the Chamber. With a free
press, the public learns all; public opinion ratifies or condemns the
vote. It will prevail in the end. Herein lies the difference between a
despotic and a popular government. A bright day dawned on the future
destinies of Sardinia, when it exchanged the one for the other.
CHAP. XXXIV.
_Alghero—Notice of.—The Cathedral of
Sassari.—University.—Museum.—A Student's private
Cabinet.—Excursion to a Nuraghe—Description of.—Remarks on the
Origin and Design of these Structures._
Sassari is about equidistant from Alghero and Porto-Torres. Of these two
ports Alghero is far the best, but all the commerce of Sassari passes
through Porto-Torres, by the Strada Reale. The ancient rivalry between
the two cities engendered a hatred which continues to the present day,
insomuch that the Sassarese have resisted all efforts to make a good
road from Alghero, to enable it to become their port of trade. These
feuds arose in the age when Alghero was the chief seat of the Arragonese
power in the island, enjoyed great exclusive privileges, and was peopled
by Catalonian settlers. It is still Spanish in the character of the
inhabitants, their customs, and buildings. Surrounded by a fertile and
well-cultivated country, abounding in orange and olive groves,
vineyards, and fields of corn and flax, Alghero is a city of some seven
thousand inhabitants, many of them in affluent circumstances. It is a
fortified place, with a richly ornamented cathedral, and thirteen other
churches.
Sassari also boasts a spacious cathedral, with a very elaborate façade,
a work of the 17th century. It contains also twenty churches, including
those that are conventual. If the religious state of the community were
to be estimated by the number of those devoted to the service of the
church, the Sassarese ought to be models of piety; for Mr. Tyndale
calculates the number of priests and monks in 1840 as giving a total of
769 clerical persons, about one for every thirty-two individuals of the
community. Their numbers have been diminished by the suppression of some
of the convents, but, even at the time of our visit, his remark, that
one cannot walk fifty yards in the street without meeting an
ecclesiastic, was confirmed by our own observation.
The object which the Sassarese are most proud to exhibit to strangers,
is the fountain of Rosello, outside the north-east or Macella gate. At
the angles are large figures of the four seasons, at the feet of which
the stream issues forth, as well as from eight lions' mouths in the
sides of the building. The whole is of white marble, and though open to
criticism as an architectural design, the utility of a fountain, which
has twelve mouths constantly pouring forth pure water, in such a
climate, cannot be overrated.
The University of Sassari, founded by Philip IV. in 1634, is established
in the spacious college formerly belonging to the Jesuits. It numbers
about 200 students. The library contains a scanty collection of books,
mostly ecclesiastical works. The museum exhibits some few articles of
interest, relics of the Phœnician colonisation and Roman occupation of
the island, mixed up in the greatest confusion, as in a broker's shop,
with meagre specimens of mineralogy and conchology; and cannot for a
moment be compared with the museum of Cagliari, rich in valuable remains
of antiquity, and admirably arranged. It will be noticed in its proper
place.
We were much more interested in being allowed to examine a small private
collection belonging to a young Sassarese, whose acquaintance it was our
good fortune to make, and of whose talents, intelligence, and courtesy I
retain a most pleasing impression. The pursuits of the young men of the
higher classes in Sassari, are described as entirely frivolous, and the
bent of the bourgeoisie as eminently sordid. It was, therefore, with an
agreeable surprise, that we found ourselves in a studio embellished with
the portraits of such characters as Dante, Ariosto, and Sir Isaac
Newton; and where mathematical instruments, scattered about, and a
cabinet containing some of the best French, English, German, and Italian
authors, gave a pleasing idea of the tastes of the owner. With imperfect
aid he had made himself sufficiently proficient in foreign languages to
be able to read them; and it appeared that his severer studies were
relieved by accomplishments displaying considerable talent, such as
painting, and taking impressions from the antique in electrotype. He was
good enough to offer me some of his casts, with a few coins from his
museum of antiquities; two engravings from which, illustrating the Punic
and Saracenic periods of the history of Sardinia, will appear in future
pages, together with one copied from a unique coin of the Roman age,
preserved in the Royal Museum at Cagliari.
One seldom finds such talents and accomplishments accompanied by the
modesty with which our young student spoke of his pursuits. Nor was he a
mere recluse, though his health appeared feeble; for he entered with
zest into conversation on the various topics of European interest
suggested by a visit from foreigners, while he did not hesitate to
expose, with patriotic zeal, the follies and abuses which opposed the
march of civilisation in his native country. Such characters are rare.
We had unexpectedly stumbled on a delicate flower, nurtured on an
ungrateful soil, and destined to shed its sweetness in an atmosphere
where, I fear, it is little appreciated. I may be excused, then, for
devoting a page to the adventure, and allowed to inscribe on that page,
a name of which I have so agreeable a recollection—that of Carlo Rugiu.
Our new friend was kind enough to be our conductor in a walk to a
Nuraghe, standing about three miles from Sassari, and in good
preservation. We had already seen many of these very ancient structures
scattered over all parts of the country; more or less ruinous, they are
said to number 3000 at the present day, and many others have been
destroyed.
[Illustration: EXTERIOR OF A NURAGHE.]
Whether seen on the plains or on the mountains, the Nuraghe are
generally built on the summits of hillocks, or on artificial mounds,
commanding the country. Some are partially inclosed at a slight distance
by a low wall of similar construction with the building. Their external
appearance is that of a truncated cone from thirty to sixty feet in
height, and from 100 to 300 in circumference at the base. The walls are
composed of rough masses of the stones peculiar to the locality, each
from two to six cubic feet, built in regular horizontal layers, in
somewhat of the Cyclopean style, and gradually diminishing in size to
the summit. Most commonly they betray no marks of the chisel, but in
many instances the stones appear to have been rudely worked by the
hammer, though not exactly squared.
The interior is almost invariably divided into two domed chambers, one
above the other; the lowest averaging from fifteen to twenty feet in
diameter, and from twenty to twenty-five feet in height. Access to the
upper chamber is gained by a spiral ramp, or rude steps, between the
internal and external walls. These are continued to the summit of the
tower, which is generally supposed to have formed a platform; but
scarcely any of the Nuraghe now present a perfect apex. On the ground
floor, there are generally from two to four cells worked in the solid
masonry of the base of the cone.
Independently of the interest attached to the object of our search, the
fertile plains surrounding Sassari formed a sufficient attraction for a
long walk. Plantations of olives, of vines, oranges, and other
fruit-trees, succeeded each other in rich profusion; the olive trees
being especially productive, and the oil, exported from Sassari in large
quantities, being of the first quality. The environs, far and wide, are
laid out in these plantations, and in gardens highly cultivated,
interspersed with villas and pleasure-grounds. Tobacco is largely
cultivated, and the vegetables are excellent. A cauliflower served up at
dinner was of enormous size, nor can I forget the baskets of delicious
figs which, at this late period of the year, were brought by the
market-women to the door of our hotel.
The Nuraghe to which our steps were directed proved to be a very
picturesque object, rising out of a thicket of shrubs, with tufts
growing in the crevices of the tower, which on one side was dilapidated.
The other, composed of huge boulders, laid horizontally with much
precision, considering the rude materials, still preserved its conical
form, rising to the height of twenty or twenty-five feet. The entrance
was so low that we were obliged to stoop almost to our knees in passing
through it. A lintel, consisting of a single stone, some two tons'
weight, was supported by the protruding jambs. No light being admitted
to the chamber, but by a low passage through the double walls, it was
gloomy enough.
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO A NURAGHE.]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF A NURAGHE.]
In this instance, the interior formed a single dome or cone about
twenty-five feet high, well-proportioned, and diminishing till a single
massive stone formed the apex. The chamber was fifteen feet in diameter,
and had four recesses or cells worked in the solid masonry, about five
feet high, three deep, and nearly the same in breadth.
The small platform on the summit of the cone, to which we ascended by
the ramp in the interior of the wall and some rugged steps, commanded a
rich view of the plain of Sassari, appearing from the top one dense
thicket of olive and fruit trees spreading for miles round the city. Out
of these groves rise the towers and domes of Sassari, the enceinte of
its grey battlemented walls, and the lofty masses of its white houses.
The view over the plain to the west is bounded by the Mediterranean,
intersected by the bold outlines of the island of Asmara. After feasting
our eyes on perhaps the most charming _tableau_ the island affords,
decked with nature's choicest gifts, and exhibiting an industry unusual
among the modern Sardes, we sat down at the foot of the hillock, while
my friend was completing his sketches of the Nuraghe, and our thoughts
were naturally drawn to these relics of a primitive age. “What was their
origin—their history—what were the purposes for which they were
designed?”
It needed only that we should lift our eyes to the rude but shapely cone
before us,—massive in its materials and fabric, and yet constructed with
some degree of mechanical skill,—to come to the conclusion that the
Nuraghe are works of a very early period, just when rude labour had
begun to be directed by some rules of geometrical art. But, in examining
the details, we find little or nothing to assist us in forming any clear
idea of the period at which they were erected, or the purpose for which
they were designed. There are not the slightest vestiges of ornament,
any rude sculpture, any inscriptions. Of an antiquity probably anterior
to all written records, history not only throws no certain light on
their origin, but, till modern times, was silent as to their existence.
Successive races, and powers, and dynasties have flourished in the
island, and passed away, scarcely any of them without leaving some
relics, some medals of history, some impress on the manners and
character of the people still to be traced. The mouldering cones which
arrest the traveller's attention, scattered, as we have observed, in
great numbers throughout the island, enduring in their simple and
massive structure, have thrown their shade over Phœnicians and Greeks,
Romans and Carthaginians, Saracens, Pisans, Genoese, and Spaniards, and
still survive the wreck of time and so many other early buildings,—the
remains of a people of whose existence they are the only record, and,
except monoliths, the oldest of, at least, European monuments.
In the absence of any positive evidence regarding the origin and design
of the Sardinian Nuraghe[76], there has been abundance of conjecture and
speculation on the subject. On the present occasion, I had the advantage
of discussing it with our intelligent Sassarese student, I have also
heard the remarks of one of the most distinguished Sarde antiquarians,
and having since consulted the works of La Marmora and other writers,
whose extensive researches and personal investigations entitle their
opinions to much respect, I shall endeavour to lay the result,
unsatisfactory as it proves, before the reader, in the shortest compass
to which so wide an inquiry can be reduced.
The world has been searched for styles of building corresponding with
that of the Sarde Nuraghe; without success. Neither in Etruscan,
Pelasgic, or any other European architecture are any such models to be
found, nor do Indian, Assyrian, or Egyptian remains exhibit any identity
with them. They have been supposed, among other theories, to have some
affinity with the Round Towers of Ireland; but after a careful
examination of some of those almost equally mysterious structures, and
considerable research among the authorities for their antiquity and
uses, I have failed to discover anything in common between them and the
Nuraghe. If my memory be correct, Mr. Petrie, the highest authority on
the subject of the Round Towers, though he had not seen the Nuraghe,
incidentally expresses the same opinion. The only existing buildings
exhibiting a cognate character with those of Sardinia, are certain
conical towers found in the Balearic islands, which were also colonised
by the Phœnicians. They are called _talayots_, a diminutive, it is said,
of _atalaya_, meaning the “Giants' Burrow;” and if the plate annexed to
Father Bresciani's work be a correct representation, they would appear
to be identical with the Nuraghe in the exterior, except that the ramp
leading to the summit is worked in the outward face of the wall. We
find, also, from La Marmora's description of the _talayots_ examined by
him, that the character of the cells is different, the style of masonry
more cyclopean, and that many of them are surrounded with circles of
stones and supposed altars, scarcely ever met with in Sardinia. The
resemblance, however, is striking, as connected with the facts of the
contiguity of Minorca, and the colonisation of both the islands by the
Phœnicians.
Opinions as to the purposes for which the Nuraghe were erected are as
various as those regarding their origin. From their great number,
scattered over the country, they are supposed by some to have been the
habitations of the most ancient shepherds; and the words of Micah—“the
tower of the flocks,”[77] and other similar passages, are referred to as
supporting this view. But it is hardly necessary to point out that the
inconveniences of the structure, from its low entrance and dark
interior, to say nothing of the waste of labour in heaping up such vast
structures for shepherds' huts, will not admit of the idea being
entertained. With somewhat more reason, but still with little
probability, they have been represented as watch-towers, strongholds,
and places of refuge; a theory to which their position, their numbers,
and their structure are all opposed. Another hypothesis treats the
Nuraghe as monuments commemorating heroes or great national events,
whether in peace or war; forgetting, as Father Bresciani suggests, the
centuries that must have elapsed while the mountains, and hills, and
plains of Sardinia were being successively crowned with monuments of
this description.
Discarding such conjectural theories, the best-informed travellers and
writers are agreed in considering the Nuraghe as being designed either
for religious edifices or tombs for the dead. La Marmora confesses his
inability to pronounce decidedly between the two opinions, but inclines
to the opinion that they may have been intended for both purposes.
Father Bresciani, the latest writer on Sardinian antiquities, after a
personal examination of the Nuraghe and much general research, though he
does not venture a decided opinion, is disposed to agree with La
Marmora. In confirmation of the idea that the most ancient monuments
were at once tombs and altars, he quotes a Spanish writer[78] on the
antiquities of Mexico, referring also to Lord Kingsborough's splendid
work. So general an assumption is hardly warranted either by historical
testimony or existing relics of antiquity. If such were the primitive
custom, it did not prevail among the Greeks and Romans, and it is in the
rites and practices of the Christian Church that we find its revival.
However this may be, the theory not only of the twofold design or use of
the Nuraghe, but of either of them, is confessedly quite conjectural: it
rests upon a narrow basis of facts. Though a great number of the Nuraghe
have been carefully ransacked, in very few instances only have human
bones been discovered, but neither urns, arms, nor ornaments usually
inhumed with the dead; nor are many of them so constructed as to permit
the supposition that they were designed for sepulchral purposes.
Occasionally, also, some of the miniature idols, such as are preserved
in the museum at Cagliari, have been found buried in Nuraghe, or their
precincts. But this is not general; and there are neither altars nor any
other indications in the structure of the buildings to indicate their
appropriation to religious uses, except their pyramidal or conical form,
which they share in common with most buildings of the earliest age. So
far as these were designed for idolatrous uses—as many of them doubtless
were—the argument from analogy may apply to the Nuraghe, but it can be
carried no further.