The Monumental Cemetery of Bonaria rises behind the hill of the same name, on an area previously used as a necropolis as early as the Punic-Roman and early Christian phases of the city. Near the main entrance to the Cemetery, until the turn of the century, there was the Benedictine church of Santa Maria de Portu (later San Bardilio) erected in the 11th century. Bonaria Cemetery was designed by Engineer Captain Luigi Damiano, with a regular four-sided layout, and opened on January 1, 1829. Barely thirty years after its inauguration, the Cemetery was already insufficient so the architect Gaetano Cima was instructed to design an initial expansion, which was followed by others that brought the area to the top of the hill. Today the Bonaria Cemetery is a large open-air art gallery collecting the sculptures of Sardinian and peninsular artists working in Cagliari (Fadda, Sartorio, Sarrocchi, Galavoni) from the second half of the 19th century to the early decades of the 20th century. This exceptional gallery features a singular variety of styles (Neoclassicism, Realism, Symbolism, Art Nouveau) that well reflects the taste of the culturally vibrant and economically active city of the late 19th and 20th centuries.
