In 1641 the Monastery of St. Catherine belonging to the Dominican Order was erected, with an adjoining church. Spano, in the 1861 Guide to Cagliari, writes: “This building in December 27, 1747, was subject to a terrible misfortune: at about 9 o’clock at night, while a storm was raging, the eastern part fell into the embankment below of considerable depth, and 20 nuns and young girls kept there for education perished. That part of the monastery has never been rebuilt; which was made into a portico leading to the ditch road.” In 1882 the newspaper L’Avvenire di Sardegna reports the start of demolition work on the section of St. Catherine’s Bastion and turret adjacent to Boyl Palace. In 1893 the monastery was in very poor condition and was given to the municipality to rehabilitate Canelles Street and extend the Bastion promenade. The City Council in 1896 posed the problem of building schools for the Castello district and decided to build one in the Bastion of St. Catherine, occupying part of the area where the monastery stands. Obviously, it is necessary to vacate the building, as two octogenarian nuns are still staying there. In 1908 historical images give us an indication of some existing scaffolding and the completion of the work. St. Catherine School recently restored an early 20th-century Printworks, cleaned up the Punic-Roman cistern, unearthed several war instruments, restored an old dental cabinet and reconstructed a period classroom. The school promotes a myriad of initiatives to consolidate a historical memory that is important to the neighborhood and the city, maintaining its original purpose but in close relationship with the most advanced educational.
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