The second half of the 1950s was, for Cagliari, a time of profound changes. The most traumatic, still marked by the regret of Cagliari residents, was the demolition of the large 19th-century market that occupied the eastern side of the southern section of Largo Carlo Felice. In its place rose the buildings of the Bank of Italy and the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, whose construction was preceded by major earthworks that brought to light a large portion of Roman and early medieval Cagliari. Of the findings briefly gave news by Ferruccio Barreca, who recognized Punic structures of cultural type with overlays of Roman age. Valuable is the photographic documentation preserved in the archives of the Archaeological Superintendence: from the photos one can see how the archaeological context excavated by Barreca was a settlement complex with multiple phases of life, impressive for its monumental relevance and extension. The same photos also show, in the strata below the market cellars, sections of masonry in squared blocks, walking surfaces, cabalettes, attributable to different phases of life, in all likelihood connectable with the remains that came to light, in the last decades of the last century, under the left transept and part of the nave of the 16th-century church of St. Augustine, where investigations have returned imposing building structures of the Roman-Imperial period with early medieval overlays. A small patch of the vast complex found is preserved in a room carved out below the Bank of Italy: a comparison with photographic images makes it possible to recognize part of a thermal environment with a raised floor, brick masonry structures and stone infill.
