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| Memories of L'Alguer |
Today is one of the hardest days for The Grandma to write her post. She and Claire Fontaine have received terrible sad news from their common friends in Majorca Island and they are totally upset.
They have thought about not writing anything but, finally, they have decided that the best homage that they could do to their lovely friend was writing about something that he and they loved: their common culture, their little country and their language.
Nothing can help you when you suffer the absence of a friend. No words, no explanations, no regrets. You are angry with the world and you try to search answers to a universal question that hasn't got any. It's a matter of time to restart with your normal life again but you have lost a part of you and you won't be the same. We are that kind of things that we live and absences are the worst experiences that you must live because there aren't any solutions. You can't change anything when the end arrives.
Claire Fontaine and The Grandma want to take profit of their staying in Sardinia and want to remember their last visit to L'Alguer some years ago. L'Alguer is a little and wonderful town that was under Catalan dominion some centuries ago and keeps its idiosincracy nowadays. Claire and The Grandma want to remember this city where they spent wonderful moments with their beloved friend and want to homage him and their great friendship.
Palma n'és llunyana. Sóc lluny dels carrers,
lluny dels ametllers i d'aquells carrers que clou la murada.
Taronges i flors damunt de la taula,
les gavines t'acompanyin el lent caminar cap a l'hora baixa.
Sempre tornaré a la nostra platja.
Les ones no em deixen, allunyar-me'n massa.
lluny dels ametllers i d'aquells carrers que clou la murada.
Taronges i flors damunt de la taula,
les gavines t'acompanyin el lent caminar cap a l'hora baixa.
Sempre tornaré a la nostra platja.
Les ones no em deixen, allunyar-me'n massa.
Maria del Mar Bonet
L'Alguer in Catalan, S'Alighèra in Sardinian, La Liéra in Sassarese or Alghero in Italian is a town of about 44,000 inhabitants in the insular province of Sassari in northwestern Sardinia, next to the Mediterranean Sea. Part of its population descends from Catalan conquerors from the end of the Middle Ages, when Sardinia was part of the Crown of Aragon.
Hence, the Catalan language is co-official, a unique situation in Italy, and known as the Alguerès dialect. The name L'Alguer comes from Aleguerium, which is a mediaeval Latin word meaning stagnation of algae (Posidonia oceanica).
L'Alguer is the third university center in the island, coming after Cagliari and Sassari. It hosts the headquarters of the Università degli Studi di Sassari’s Architecture and Design department
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| Memories of L'Alguer |
The area of today's Alguer has been settled since pre-historic times. The Ozieri culture was present here in the 4th millennium BC (Necropolis of Anghelu Ruju), while the Nuraghe civilization settled in the area around 1,500 BC.
The Phoenicians had arrived by the 8th century BC and the metalworking town of Sant'Imbenia, with a mixed Phoenician and Nuragic population, engaged in trade with the Etruscans on the Italian mainland. Due to its strategic position on the Mediterranean Sea, L'Alguer had been developed into a fortified port town by 1102, built by the Genoese Doria family. The Dorias ruled L'Alguer for centuries, apart from a brief period under the rule of Pisa between 1283–84.
L'Alguer's population later grew because of the arrival of Catalan colonists. In the early 16th century L'Alguer received papal recognition as a bishopric and the status of King's City (Ciutat de l'Alguer) and developed economically.
Historically, the city was founded in the early twelfth century between 1102 and 1112, when the noble Doria family of Genoa was allowed to build the first historical nucleus into an empty section of the coast of the parish of Nulauro in Judicature of Torres (Sassari).
More information: Alghero Turismo
For two centuries remained in the orbit of the Maritime Republics, first and foremost the Genoese apart from 1283-1284 when the Pisans were able to control it for a year. It is plausible that at this time the town shared, given its commercial and multi-ethnic nature, a language similar to the nascent Sassarese.
The village was conquered by force by the Crown of Aragon, at the behest of Peter IV d'Aragona, who later actively promoted colonisation of the town and the surrounding area, sending numerous families from different counties and provinces of the then Crown of Aragon, including Valencia, Majorca, Catalonia and Aragon. These were granted enticing privileges, and in fact replaced the original population some of whom were sent to the Iberian Peninsula and Majorca as slaves.
The dialects these families spoke in L'Alguer, were all very similar and derived from the same linguistic family. Over time it settled on its current form of Catalan, despite the subsequent decline of the Crown of Aragon. L'Alguer today is struggling to retain the use of Catalan, which is a linguistic island and only 10-15% of its inhabitants speak it in its Alghero variant. The language is recognized by both the Italian Republic and Sardinia as a minority language.
Nowadays it is poorly spoken by young people. The city is trying for some time to protect this dialect, through education programs and official use within the local authority. The citizens currently residing in L'Alguer however, are mostly from the surrounding territories and prefer either the Italian language or Sardinian and Sassarese. L'Alguer still maintains a small representation at the Generalitat de Catalunya, the government of Catalonia, without actually having any institutional power in the territory apart from providing assistance to the preservation of Catalan culture.
More information: Naturalghero
The city, one of the principal of Sardinia
and the fifth most populated region, is one of the gateways to the
Island thanks to the nearby airport. It is the capital of the Riviera
del Corallo, whose name derives from the fact that its waters provide an
abundant supply of precious red coral of the finest quality.
Historically the processing and sale of the material has been of great
importance to the economy and a branch of coral is inserted in the
emblem of the city.
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| From Mallorca to L'Alguer, our Mediterranean Sea |
The Aragonese were followed by the Spanish Habsburgs, who ruled until 1702 and continued expanding the town.
In 1720 L'Alguer, along with the rest of Sardinia, was handed over to the Piedmont-based House of Savoy. In 1821 a famine led to a revolt by the population, which was bloodily suppressed. At the end of the same century L'Alguer was de-militarised.
In 1720 L'Alguer, along with the rest of Sardinia, was handed over to the Piedmont-based House of Savoy. In 1821 a famine led to a revolt by the population, which was bloodily suppressed. At the end of the same century L'Alguer was de-militarised.
During the Fascist era, part of the surrounding marshes were reclaimed and the suburbs of Fertilia and S.M. La Palma were founded. During World War II (1943) L'Alguer was bombed, and its historical centre suffered heavy damage. The presence of malaria in the countryside was finally overcome in the 1950s. Since then, L'Alguer has become a popular tourist resort.
L'Alguer is located in the northwestern coast of Sardinia, along the bay named after the city. In the north of the urban area there is the Nurra plain, to the NW the karstic systems of Capo Caccia, Punta Giglio and Monte Doglia. The south is built mainly by mountains and the plateaus of Villanova Monteleone and Bosa.
More information: Sardegna Turismo
A dialect of Catalan is spoken in Alghero, introduced when Catalans settled in the town. Catalan was replaced as the official language of the Island by Spanish in the 17th century, then by Italian. The most recent linguistic research showed that 24.1% of the people have Algherese Catalan as a mother tongue, which is habitually spoken by 18.5% and taught to the children by 8% of the population, whereas 88.2% have some understanding of the language.
Since 1997 Catalan has had official recognition and national and regional laws grant its right to be used in the city. Currently, there has been a revival of the arts in Algherese Catalan, with singers such as Franca Masu performing original compositions in the language.
Following a rural exodus from the surrounding villages towards the city, much of the population speaks or has some proficiency in Sardinian, in addition to Italian and Catalan. Historically, the spread of Catalan was limited to the city and part of the coast, as the surrounding countryside has always been populated by Sardinian-speaking people.
Moreover, the ancient part of L'Alguer shows many characteristics of Catalan medieval architecture. The algueresos (L'Alguer inhabitants) usually refer to their city as Barceloneta, little Barcelona, because of their ancestry and fraternity with the Catalan capital. The cuisine is a blending of Catalan cuisine and Sardinian cuisine.
Ni cel ni terra aquesta nit
comprenen els meus pensaments:
imatges que porten dolor,
imatges que piquen al cor.
comprenen els meus pensaments:
imatges que porten dolor,
imatges que piquen al cor.
Adéu mariner de l'Alguer,
adéu mariner de la nit,
adéu esperança enganyosa
minyones plorau aquí, amb mi.
adéu mariner de la nit,
adéu esperança enganyosa
minyones plorau aquí, amb mi.
Franca Masu
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