At school these are topics that are difficult to deal with, either due to time or due to a certain way of thinking, the result is that Sardinian students rarely delve into the history of the island in depth. As part of the Sa Sarda revolution told to students project”, a taboo was broken and in front of 400 students from the DA Azuni, F. Figari and M. Castelvì high schools, scholars, representatives of civil society and culture of Sassari and activists who have always been committed to enhancing Sa Sarda Rivolutzione.
The two souls of the project, the Teatro S’Arza and Sa Domo de Totus, crossed paths last year and this edition has further expanded to various other associations, to the world of schools and to the reality of the Gremi. The involvement of the Gremi was one of the significant innovations and the interventions of the historians Federico Francioni and Piero Atzori and the theatrical performance by S’Arza entitled “The gremi in the Sardinian revolution” were focused on this. It is no coincidence that the president of Intergremio Fabio Madau opened the meeting with the schools: «I am very proud to be here today» – Madau told the students «because this initiative bears witness to a little-known soul but fundamental of Sassari and its historic corporations:
the openness to innovation, to the ideas of justice and equality and underlines the role of the Gremi in the Sardinian Revolution”.
The historians Francioni and Atzori told the children the incredible story of the Forche del Carmine Vecchio, located until the mid-nineteenth century, according to Enrico Costa’s reconstruction, in an area near the “Filippo Figari” art high school, on the edge of the current Via Quarto. On those gallows, in addition to numerous prisoners, eight revolutionaries were hanged between 1796 and 1802. Three months after the escape of Giommaria Angioy (16 June 1796), there was in fact an attempt to reconquer the city of Sassari to free the «patriots » fallen prisoners: «it was a generous action, but improvised – Atzori explained to the boys – it went badly because the revolt did not break out in the city
expected and why the element of surprise was missing. Four fell prisoner. A week later the hangings began.”
Among the eight Sardinian martyrs also Angioy’s right-hand man, Frantziscu Cillocco, who attempted to relaunch the revolution by landing in Gallura from Corsica in 1802 but was betrayed, together with several of his companions, taken to Sassari in chains and finally tortured and killed here. A monument conceived by Sa Domo de Totus, sponsored by the Municipality of Sassari and designed by the teacher of the artistic Vittore Loriga will be dedicated to these forgotten revolutionaries: «this totem is the first physical homage to the Sardinian Revolution – explains Cristiano Sabino, teacher of the Sardinian Revolution, with pride artistic – the events we are describing today were not simply “anti-feudal uprisings”, but a true national revolution, anti-feudal, anti-monarchic and aimed at the construction of an independent Republic. I’m not saying it, the sources say it, just read the Angioy Memorial, the pamphlets that ignited the revolt and the same anthem by Ignazio Mannu which incites the people to rebellion using the Sardinian language as an instrument of political struggle.” The monument was inaugurated in via Quarto and will be «a large steel navel around which – concludes Sabino – in the coming years, always involving young people, we will restore memory and dignity to an erased and hidden history”.
