The construction of the Laboratory was preceded by the recovery and functional adaptation of a pre-existing building on the top of Bonaria Hill. The integrated management of the facility involves the City of Cagliari, the University of Cagliari, the Superintendence for Architectural, Landscape, Historical, Artistic and Ethnoanthropological Heritage for the provinces of Cagliari and Oristano, and the Regional Directorate for Cultural and Landscape Heritage of Sardinia. Its urban location in the center of the city, within the Bonaria archaeological park and in close connection with the monumental cemetery of the same name, enhances its importance as a vector of cultural interchange for the city and the territory. The operational purposes conducted in the facility concern the characterization of materials, knowledge of the state of preservation of artifacts and the causes of their deterioration. These actions make it possible to gather basic information in order to develop targeted conservation protocols that respect the uniqueness of cultural property. Activities related to diagnostics applied to Conservation and the study of ancient, traditional and innovative materials that find applications in the specific field are among those that most distinguish the Laboratory’s activities. These ends are achieved with the help of state-of-the-art scientific instrumentation and active research-didactic programs involving students from different faculties of the University in order to foster and trigger processes of multicultural osmosis. The Laboratory was first opened to the public during the 2012 edition of Monumenti Aperti and therefore it still remains unknown to a wider public as well as to city schools. The staff working in the facility will illustrate the functionality of the various sections, ongoing studies, and will have the pleasure of guiding visitors on a fascinating and unusual journey, suspended between the microscopic and macroscopic worlds, within the Restoration and Conservation of Cultural Heritage chain in the articulated phases.
