The museum section “The Duke’s Rooms” in the Ducal Palace aims to complete and enrich the tour of the building, to illustrate the history of Sassari’s most important civilian residence and the life that took place within it in the first half of the 19th century. The installation is spread over three interconnected rooms, with entrance from the palace atrium: an evocative and scenic path that aims to evoke the organization and functions of the rooms in the time of the Duke. The first room is devoted to the history of the area in which the palace is located: excavations in the adjacent Piazza Santa Caterina have in fact uncovered the remains of 15th-16th century dwellings.Among the exhibits are several Sassarese majolica vessels and other contemporary Italian polychrome majolica. The last two rooms, on the other hand, are devoted to the Manca family’s residences, from the Palazzo d’Usini to the Ducal Palace, with objects illustrating their daily life: dinner services of various manufacture, cooking pots and pans, pantry, apothecary and personal hygiene vessels, as well as special objects such as two guns. The artifacts also foreshadow the cultural and commercial relations of the period with ceramics from Italy, especially Liguria and Naples, Provence, Switzerland, and England.
