Spazio Michelangelo Pira is a community space, created to be a place of socialization and exchange, in which people and associations make their skills available in the realization of workshops, counters and events open to citizenship. An intergenerational place, open to ideas and imaginations, promoter of social processes dedicated to all inhabitants, facilitator of relationships and sociability.
Built in the 1980s as a conference hall, the space is dedicated to Michelangelo Pira (Bitti 1928 – Quartu 1980), one of the most important protagonists of the cultural debate in Sardinia after World War II. The site where the modern building stands constitutes for many not-so-young citizens the “place of memory” of the old railway station, from which, until the early 1960s, several Quartu residents left every day to go to Cagliari where they attended high school or made purchases of some importance.
It all began in 1880, when the Genoese merchant Giovanni Devoto asked for a concession from the municipality of Cagliari for the construction and operation of a steam tramway that, starting from what is now Piazza Matteotti, would run along Via Roma, what is now Via XX Settembre, to the slaughterhouse on Via Sonnino, Piazza Garibaldi, to connect to the new ring road, and to what is now Piazza San Benedetto. For the construction of this, the garden of the Capuchin convent, now disused after the handover of ecclesiastical property to the state, was requested as a concession. The station, built in sober forms but with attention to decoration and materials, was equipped with large sheds for the shelter of cars, a comfortable waiting room and a bar with a public telephone. The track was 10 km and 600 m long. The freight cars consisted of two-axle flatbeds that allowed the transport of wine, which was sold in Cagliari taverns or boarded on ships. Passengers, on the other hand, enjoyed two-axle terraced cars.
The maiden voyage took place on September 3, 1893, and local newspapers reported on it. The service ran regularly until 1906, when it was interrupted by serious riots over “dear bread,” during which the workshops and sheds were badly destroyed by the angry mob. The restoration work took seven months, and service was reactivated on January 1, 1907. In 1928, Quartu, too, was granted electrification of the Cagliari-Quartu route. From November 19, 1961, streetcar service was limited to Selargius, and the connection between the latter town and Quartu was replaced by shuttle buses, and in 1962 by the trolleybus. The station area is now used as the “Matteotti” public garden.
