Piazza d'Italia

Palazzo  della  Provincia  is  the headquarters  of  the  Prefettura,  the  Government  territorial office established soon after the unification of Italy. Designed by Eugenio Sironi and Giovanni  Borgnini, it was built in the Neoclassical style between 1872 and 1880. Worthy of note is the  Council Room (Sala Consiliare) decorated with an elaborate series of frescoes by the Sicilian  artist Giuseppe Sciuti. The frescoes represent an allegory of the history of Italy, from the ob-  scure primitive Era to the Modern Age. Among the figures is King Vittorio  Emanuele II in the act   of holding the newly liberated Italy and promoting progress, symbolized by a locomotive and  a telegraph. This fresco is an important example of historical verismo (second half of the 19th  century), exquisitely represented by painter Sciuti.   The façade of the Palazzo looks onto Piazza  d’Italia, the largest piazza in Sassari (about 1 hectare in surface) built in 1872. In the middle is  the statue of King Vittorio Emanuele II, the work of Genoese sculptor Giuseppe Sartorio (1899).   The monument was   inaugurated in the presence of the Royal Family, with a folk ceremony that can be regarded as the first Cavalcata Sarda