The Archdiocesan Seminary of Sassari was established to instruct and educate young men who wanted to dedicate themselves to the priesthood. The facility dates back to 1444, but was officially inaugurated by Archbishop Alfonso de Lorca in 1593. It was Msgr. Bertolinis who in 1747 built a large building adjacent to the Episcope and moved the Tridentine Seminary there. The most radical transformation took place around 1828, by Archbishop Carlo Tommaso Arnosio, who greatly expanded the premises by incorporating the area occupied by the Church of Santa Croce, demolished for the occasion, which was located within a vast courtyard whose entrance portal, with the inscription “FULGET IN TENEBRIS SOLE SPLENDIDUS” surrounding a cross, became the entrance to the Seminary. The itinerary will include a visit to the large chapel, which has recently recovered its former historical and artistic prestige through careful restoration, and the “Father Manzella Hall” with its fine architecture and interesting painted decorations. The Diocesan Library is one of the most well-stocked of the city’s ecclesiastical libraries, as it has numerous ancient volumes of Theology, Sacred Scripture, Canon Law, Patristics, Liturgy and Ecclesiastical History, as well as a number of periodicals since its founding.
