Alghero History

Alghero, in local idiom "S'Alighera" or "L'Aliera" or "L'Alghè" and in catalan idiom "L'Alguer". Its inhabitants call it sometimes with love Barceloneta (pronounced Baltsarunéta) due to former Catalans who came here from the other side of Mediterranean Sea in the first half of 4th century giving a strong feature that distinguishes Alghero from other Sardinian cities: the Catalan mark.

The first "particular sign" of Alghero identity is the language; obviously, there are other features: elements in folklore, for example, starting from typical songs and baby games to popular parties and religious celebrations (like the solemn celebration for the end of the year with the singing of the famous Senyal del Judici song); moreover, there are typical characteristics of population, offering some attitudes and virtuosities that seem to come out not from the real history but from the historic memory, imagination and fragrance.

And the city itself is right in the foreground, with a general shape and architecture so clearly characterized by a urban planning strictly linked to the destiny of "forward emplacement" for the Sardinia Kingdom.

Seated on the Coral Coast, in the north-western Sardinia, Alghero is a place of fusion for different cultures: the sardinian, the catalan and the italian one. Alghero's history is for the main part linked to its catalan memory: since dramatic origins to decline towards the actual affectionate recovery. The city development is due to three connected situations: the general growth of sardinian population (mainly in the major centres); the growing trend to urbanization that is pushing people from countryside and small cities to main urban centres; the tourism development.

The choice of Alghero as the "gold door" for tourism in Sardinia was given since former 50's, when stranger leisure flights starter and first modern hotels were built up, like ESIT Hotel hosting the Regional Institution for development of tourism; the hotel, at the end of its promotional action, is today the seat of a professional secondary school in hotel management, but the impressive presence of the building along the seaside is a sort of historic basement for Alghero tourism.

The tourism development was not without troubles, in particular because of this natural choice that came down to be a compulsory goal in front of the crisis of other activities (agriculture, also specialized, finds difficult to grow up in different ways except for floriculture; fishing and trade are strictly linked to tourism; small industries around the city are now closed because of the brief upward moment of petrolchemical industry in Porto Torres and its rapid decline).

But the beauty of nature (from beaches to the entire coast design with the great natural monument "Grotte di Nettuno" famous in all Italy since last century: a stone remembers the visit of Carlo Alberto), the presence of essential infrastructures like touristic sea-port and moreover the airport, the typical elements like local cooking and the still resisting popular folklore active a continuous flow which is the main economic resource of the city.