A leading cultural project returns to the city, in a dialogue between disciplines and current events accessible to all: and for the 2026 edition, the Sardinia Archeo Festival has chosen the theme of " Microworlds " populated by communities throughout history, between sacred and everyday places, thus returning to enliven the capital with three days of excursions , meetings , dissemination and music scheduled from 12 to 14 June . Curated by the Itzokor association, the festival will continue in August and September with other initiatives in Villagrande Strisali , Settimo San Pietro , Genoni , Allai , Pau , Carloforte and finally Alghero .
All Sardinia Archeo Festival events will be open to the public , illustrating how, over the centuries, human beings have built relationships and connections with places and identities that, though small in scale, have often impacted the history of ordinary people and beyond. Under the artistic direction of Alice Nozza and Matteo Tatti , the event is once again supported by the Fondazione Sardegna , local governments, and associations.
The musical background for Saturday and Sunday will be " Transuonanze ", conceived by Gerardo Ferrara in the intertwining of electroacoustic music, voice and instruments in an ensemble with an evocative touch, made up of the composer Filippo Mereu , the singer-songwriter Silvia Locario , the cellist Ilaria Giorgi and Luca Schiavo , guitarist and bouzouki player.
Friday's preview
The Festival will kick off on Friday at 6 pm with an archaeological and landscape excursion to the Devil's Saddle , made possible by the Municipality and the team from the University of Cagliari, responsible for research activities on the site. In fact, the guides for visitors will be the directors of the excavation Maria Adele Ibba and Fabio Pinna , together with experts Anna Luisa Sanna , Francesco Mameli , Fabio Nieddu , Francesca Costa and Alfonso Stiglitz . The walk will wind through the history and finds of a highly symbolic place for the city, with the meeting point at the entrance to the trail in front of the Hotel Calamosca .
Saturday and Sunday
A mosaic of diverse perspectives across geography, archaeology, history, and memory will emerge in the series of meetings scheduled for the Cagliari Ghetto . The series will begin at 3:00 PM on Saturday with artist and cartographer Laura Canali , a contributor to the geopolitical magazine Limes for over thirty years, reflecting on global changes in relation to the Mediterranean . This will be followed by Enrico Giannichedda , who will explore the relationship between objects, people, and historiographies in research, and Alessandra Benini , an underwater archaeologist, who will recount the world of sailors of the past, amidst thrills and glories.
From antiquity, we'll move to 18th-century Cagliari with Giampaolo Salice , in an in-depth look at the communities of Genoese, Corsican, Maltese, and Greek immigrants who connected the island with the rest of the Mediterranean and Europe. Concluding the day, Giorgia Fazzini and Lara Meneghini will explore the chronicles of Venice's Lazzaretto Nuovo , a place of transit and isolation that helped define the modern concept of quarantine.
On Sunday, however, the appointment is already early in the morning, with Silvia Romani who at 9 will take those present into the world of rites, divinities and superstitions associated by ancient Mediterranean peoples with the sea and its depths, followed by Beatrice Del Bo who will open a window onto the universe of medieval taverns , picturesque places of meeting and clashing experienced by men and women from every walk of life.
Caterina Ghisu will bring the focus back to Cagliari, focusing on the story of the very young porters known as "piccioccus de crobi," immortalized in photographs held at the Lombroso Museum in Turin. Mariangela Rapetti will also shed light on the mentally ill ward of the city's old civil hospital. Finally, Michela Valente will dedicate her talk to the women accused of witchcraft who attempted to resist the repressive mechanisms of the time.
We'll return at 3 pm with a broader reflection on human evolution, contemporary archaeology, and Mediterranean identities, with Sahra Talamo and Andrea Picin narrating the complex and fascinating encounter between Sapiens and Neanderthals , while Giuliano Volpe and Fabio Pinna will focus on the role of archaeology as a discipline, method, and tool for researching history and interpreting contemporary society. An in-depth look at Malta's cultural potpourri will be led by linguist Sandro Caruana , followed by journalist and geopolitical analyst Marco Ansaldo , on the "hot" crossroads of tensions, conflicts, and interests that is the Black Sea, and Raffaele Cattedra , in a final reflection on the rich connections between Mediterranean communities and territories .
