To spot the Church of Santa Chiara, look up the short steps in front of you for a pale baroque facade with a double-curved top edge, two rectangular windows, a simple stone portal, and a pair of leafless trees stretching their branches beside a high iron fence.
Now, let’s take a little stroll back in time! Imagine the clatter of footsteps echoing on these old stones as you stand in Stampace, just steps from the heart of Cagliari. The Church of Santa Chiara in front of you might look quiet today, but centuries ago it was alive with whispers and laughter from a bustling community of Clarisse nuns. Founded between the end of the 1200s and the beginning of the 1300s, both the church-originally dedicated to Saint Margaret-and its neighboring monastery sheltered nuns for over 600 years. One can almost hear their prayers drifting through the air, mixing with the city’s daily life.
But, as in any good story, peace was interrupted. In 1943, the bombs of World War II thundered over Cagliari, shattering this sacred ground. The monastery was so badly damaged it had to be torn down, leaving only a few stubborn ruins as ghosts of the past. In a twist worthy of any Italian drama, part of the monastery’s ruins became a lively market in the 1950s-and it’s still busy with shoppers today!
The church you see was rebuilt in the late 1600s with a baroque style and stands on a little square, its entrance marked by a decorative portal, a tiny niche, and two watchful windows above-if only windows could talk! Peer around and you’ll spot a bell gable and, nearby, a modern elevator, giving people a vertical shortcut and sparing them the 98 steps up Santa Chiara. Inside, there’s a golden altarpiece and a hidden crypt beneath your feet with medieval secrets and ancient graves. So, what’s harder, keeping a secret for centuries underground, or walking all those 98 steps? At least with this tour, you won’t break a sweat!
