Cagliari is situated in the southern part of the Italian island of Sardinia, on the banks of the 200 km long Sardinian Canal, on the opposite bank of which is already Africa, namely Tunisia.
The population of Cagliari has never been homogeneous. The national composition of the city only stabilised in the mid-nineteenth century, when Sardinia, and with it Cagliari, became part of Italy. Today the city has about 160 thousand inhabitants, 98% of whom are Italians.
Ancient Cagliari was founded by the Phoenicians in the 8th century B.C. The founders of the city liked the area so much that the settlement was named Car Vaalis, translated as "City of God". Two centuries later the Carthaginians settled here and in 238 BC, the Romans took over, installing aqueducts, paving roads and squares. The city's population had the status of free Romans and enjoyed many rights and freedoms.
The city then fell into the hands of the Vandals, was raided by the Arabs, conquered by the Byzantines, the Pisans, the Aragonese and, in the 18th century, Cagliari was in turn ruled by the British, the Austrians, the Spanish and the French.
The city took on its present form at the end of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th. During this time, many ancient Sardinian towns, including Cagliari, were reconstructed and improved by the local population as part of the "piccone risanatore" ("healing pickaxe") movement.
Since 1949, Cagliari is the capital of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, which is part of the Italian Republic.
