The destination of the hill of Monte Urpinu has always been that of a military zone since 1792, when the Engineer Corps, in order to bar the advance of Truguet‘s French, built a series of forts there, while in the last world war anti-aircraft batteries were installed, to counter the incursions on the city of the flying fortresses. Even today, the hill of Monte Urpinu is a unique point to admire places rich in historical, environmental and landscape values of the City of Cagliari. The proposed tour starts from the highest part of the hill, inside the Belvedere Memorial, and from the Monte Urpinu Battery, an anti-aircraft emplacement from World War II used by the Navy in the defense of the city and the port, from where you can admire the panorama of the city with its hills and the Santa Gilla lagoon, as far as the mountains of Capoterra and Sette Fratelli. The tour continues along the right side of Viale Europa, from which the former quarry, owned by the City of Cagliari, can be seen, where recovery work is currently underway for the construction of the municipal nursery. Immediately after is the former Air Force Fuel Depot, built after 1936 and consisting of several buildings surrounded by lush flora of pine trees and Mediterranean scrub, where animals such as wild rabbits and partridges still live, a fauna unthinkable in an urban area. Also visible from the hill are the area of the former Navy Fuel Depot, built between 1937 and 1939, and whose 4 huge tanks are still clearly visible today. These two areas, former military property acquired to the patrimony of the Region of Sardinia, in addition to representing relics of a real “Military Archaeology,” are inserted as an important link between the Natural Park of Molentargius and the Urban Park of Monte Urpinu. Therefore, they represent not only an environmental and natural wealth to be preserved and revalued, but also an architectural-building heritage available to citizens, which deserves to be known.
