The building covers a rather large irregular area between Genovesi Street, vico I Genovesi and Corte d’Appello Street. It has three high floors on Genovesi Street, which become five on the parallel Corte d’Appello Street due to the slope between the streets.
Neoclassical in style, the facade has a smooth base with horizontal bands and molded string-course cornices on the upper floors. The windows on the upper floors are framed by plain molded cornices; those on the two parallel streets also have projecting wrought-iron balconies resting on brackets. The setback from the street line on Via Genovesi results from Cima’s enlargement project approved in 1857, so it is believed that the entire elevations of the palace were revised on that occasion by the architect Cima himself. From the matricula possessori del Vecchio Sommarione it appears that the building then indicated with map no. of map 4327 of Via S. Giuseppe (referring to vico 1° Genovesi, then called discesa S. Giuseppe, where the main entrance is) was owned by Canon Don Giovanni Vargiu of Cagliari Cathedral. It later passed to his niece Giuseppa Medda Vargiu, wife of avv. Giovanni Fois of Ozieri, son of that Giuseppe Fois who owned another palace in the same Via Genovesi at numbers 110-112.
In the entrance to St. Joseph Square no. 4, inside you can still see a cistern from the Punico-Roman period, which was formerly used to collect rainwater.
It is speculated that later the cistern was used as an escape route, in case of siege by the enemy, to get outside the City walls. Here in 2009 the Piredda Sisters moved their tailoring workshop.
