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ALGHERO |
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ALGHERO is a very rare Italian phenomenon: a tourist town that is
also a flourishing fishing port, giving it an economic base entirely
independent of the summer masses. The predominant flavour here is
Catalan, owing to a wholesale Hispanicization that followed the
overthrow of the Doria family by Pedro IV of Aragon in 1354, a process
so thorough that it became known as "Barcelonetta". The traces are still
strong in the old town today, with its flamboyant churches, wrought-iron
balconies and narrow cobbled streets named in both Italian and Catalan.
Beyond the stout girdle of walls enclosing this historic core, the new
town's grid of parallel streets has little of interest beyond its
restaurants and hotels.
The Town
A walk around the old town should take in the series of seven defensive
towers which dominate Alghero's centre and its surrounding walls. From
the Giardino Púbblico , the Porta Terra is the first of these massive
bulwarks - known as the Jewish Tower, it was erected at the expense of
the prosperous Jewish community before their expulsion in 1492. Beyond
is a puzzle of lanes, at the heart of which the pedestrianized Via Carlo
Alberto, Via Principe Umberto and Via Roma have most of the bars and
shops. At the bottom of Via Umberto stands Alghero's sixteenth-century
Cattedrale , where Spanish viceroys stopped to take a preliminary oath
before taking office in Cágliari. Its incongruously Neoclassical
entrance is round the other side on Via Manno; inside, the lofty nave's
alternating pillars and columns rise to an impressive octagonal dome.
Most of Alghero's finest architecture dates from the same period and is
built in a similar Catalan-Gothic style. Two of the best examples are a
short walk away: the Palazzo d'Albis on Piazza Cívica and the elegantly
austere Jewish palace Palau Reial in Via Sant'Erasmo.
Outside the old quarter, most of the tourist activity revolves around
the port , its wide quay nudged by rows of colourful fishing boats and
bordered by bars. The town's beaches begin further north, backed by
hotels, many of the older ones converted from villas formerly owned by
the expatriate community of central Europeans who fled here after World
War I.
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