The countdown for the former Buoncammino prison has begun . The old prison in Cagliari, closed ten years ago, will become the headquarters of the most important state agencies that currently pay expensive rents to private individuals or, as for the Police Headquarters building owned by the Metropolitan City, to other public entities.
The Municipality, sidelined in the "division" of spaces and future projects, does not raise the white flag: the city councilors Matteo Massa (first signatory), Alessio Alias, Alessandro Cao, Chiara Cocco, Paola Mura and Carlo Usai want to discuss in the Hall of Palazzo Bacaredda an agenda to transfer the structures to the Region and obtain funding for the recovery.
The first step of the complicated timetable was “the assignment of technical services for the verification of seismic vulnerability, energy diagnosis in dynamic regime, geometric, architectural, technological, plant, structural and stratigraphic survey and geological, geotechnical, hydrological, environmental investigations, urban/territorial insertion study and vegetation analysis of the compendium” awarded to the company “Rti Secured Solutions” for 464,851.16 euros.
Once the structural survey of the building and the area is completed, the State Property Agency plans to launch the tender for the design, which will be followed by the project for the settlement of the state bodies, with which consultations are underway for the subdivision and assignment of the internal areas. The timing is linked to the bureaucratic phases relating to the contracts; in the first months of 2025, the tender for the design should be completed and must be presented within 6 months. The adaptation works could begin in 2026 and be completed within three years.
The new destination of the former penitentiary, today only partially used, is strictly subject to the constraints imposed by law. On June 22nd of last year, Monica Stochino, head of the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Metropolitan City, together with the national director of the State Property Agency, Alessandra Dal Verme, and the regional manager of the State Property Agency, Rita Soddu, had carried out an inspection of the old structure. The desire to recover the old prison, before it goes to ruin, is primary.
The spaces of the penitentiary institution are now partially occupied by the Penitentiary Administration, by the offices of the Prefecture and by the Prosecutor's Office which uses the old women's section as an archive.
The goal is to transfer the offices and archives of the Prefecture, Police Headquarters, State Property Agency, State Archives, Public Prosecutor's Office, Department of Penitentiary Administration and Regional Fire Department to the former Buoncammino prison. The watchword is clear: save money by cutting rental costs. This is why the State Property Agency is trying to use those unused real estate assets to transfer state entities that currently pay expensive rental fees to private individuals or, as in the case of the Police Headquarters building owned by the Metropolitan City, to other public entities.
Buoncammino prison, with its 15,000 square meters, is the largest building in the capital. Designed by Giovanni Imeroni, it was built by engineers Bulgarini and Ceccarelli. It became operational on July 2, 1855, and was operational until November 23, 2014, when in a major operation the inmates were transferred to the new penitentiary in Uta. The first director was Domenico De Sica, grandfather of the actor and director Vittorio, who in turn was the father of the actor Christian: previously he had been responsible for all the prisons combined, which in the city were located in the Tower of San Pancrazio, in the Tower of the Elephant and in the salt mines of San Bartolomeo (it was a penal bath) where the condemned worked barefoot in the sun (with chains on their ankles).
There was a dormitory on the hill, and the Buoncammino prison had been built there to supposedly improve the conditions of the prisoners. Taking into account a situation that in reality had not improved, another structure was incorporated into the existing one between 1887 and 1897. Internal security was initially entrusted to the Army and then passed under the control of the new Penitentiary Police Corps.
