At the turn of the 1800s and 1900s, a wealthy middle class consisting of landowners, industrialists, merchants, and professionals began to establish itself in the town of Quartu Sant’Elena. All of them cared strongly about externalizing their social status through the construction or enrichment of their homes with prominent decorative elements, very much at odds with traditional Sardinian architecture. It was in this period, in fact, that alongside the Campidanese houses, characterized by a “courtyard” arrangement and high blind walls facing the street (whose only external decoration was represented by important portals or by a few elements carved into the keys of the arch of the portal itself), there arose numerous style mansions distinguished, instead, by an architectural structure directly facing the street front and by facades richly decorated with floral friezes and curvilinear motifs, alongside other decorations in a geometric style closer to theart deco of the later period. Among the many dwellings of the period, Palazzo Scalas, located between Marconi Street and Cavour Street, is of particular importance, built in the last decade of the 1800s by Felice Maxia, former owner of the furnaces of the same name, and later redecorated by his heirs according to fashions and models proper toart noveau. Palazzo Scalas is a late Art Nouveau building structured on two levels, whose façade is characterized by decorative elements representing female figures and floral friezes placed above each opening and in the key of the arch projecting from the main entrance, as well as by the design of the wrought-iron railings placed to protect the French doors on the second floor. It is currently used as the home of a kindergarten.
