A Jacobite Gazetteer - Italy

Cagliari, Sardinia - Cattedrale

Facade

The city of Cagliari is located at the southern end of the island of Sardinia. The cathedral of the city is located in Piazza Palazzo. In the crypt are buried the only son of King Victor, as well as one of his aunts (sister of King Charles IV and of King Victor).

Here in 1812 Princess Mary Beatrice of Savoy (later Queen Mary III and II) married Archduke Francis of Austria (later Duke Francis IV of Modena).

The crypt of the cathedral (called the "Santuario dei Martiri" on account of the numerous bodies of martyrs preserved there) lies below the choir and presbytery. It is divided into three chapels - a central one, one to the left, and one to the right.

The chapel on the left is dedicated to San Saturnino. Here is buried the only son of King Victor, Prince Charles Emanuel of Savoy (elder brother of Queen Mary III and II) who died of small-pox when he was less than three years old. At the time he was third in line to the English and Scottish thrones - after his uncle (later King Charles IV) and his father (later King Victor).

The funerary monument for Prince Charles Emanuel was designed by the Franciscan Conventual Fra Antonio Cano. It is a sarcophagus made of a variety of marbles. On the front is a Latin inscription which reads in part: ¹

D· O· M·
CAROLO · EMAN · A · SAB · PRINCIPI
...
VICTORIVS · EMAN · DVX · AVGVSTAE · PRAETORIAE
MARIA · THERESIA · ARCIDVX · AVSTRIAE
PARENTES
CONTRA · VOTA · POSVERVNT
DVLCISSIMO · FILIO
A · D · MDCCXCVI
MDCCXCIX

Tomb of Prince Charles Emanuel of Savoy

The chapel on the right is dedicated to San Lucifero. Here is buried the eldest sister of King Charles IV and King Victor, Marie-Josephe-Louise (wife of King Louis XVIII of France). She died at Hartwell House in 1810, having lived in England for the previous two years. Her remains were laid to rest in the Lady Chapel of Westminster Abbey (Henry VII's Chapel) for a year until they were removed to Sardinia.² Her funerary monument was commissioned by her youngest brother King Charles Felix of Sardinia and designed by Andrea Galassi. ³ Above a plinth with a lengthy inscription, an angel leans his right arm on a funerary urn.

Tomb of Queen Marie-Josephe-Louise of France

Notes

¹ I have been unable to transcribe the third line of the inscription. I have also only partially transcribed the last two lines.

² Cf. "The Countess de Lisle" The Times (November 16, 1810): 3; "The Remains of the Late Countess de Lisle", The Times (November 26, 1810): 2; "The Queen of France's Funeral", The Times (November 28, 1810): 3.

³ Andrea Galassi was born in Sassari in 1793, and died in Rome in 1845. He was a student of Antonio Canova, and was the major Sardinian exponent of neo-classicalism. He performed many commissions for the House of Savoy, including a statue of King Charles Felix of Sardinia in Piazza Yenne, and several of the statues in the Chiesa della Gran Madre di Dio in Turin.