Mediateca del Mediterraneo, Public library and museum in Cagliari, Italy.
The Mediateca del Mediterraneo is a public library and museum organized across three floors arranged around a central courtyard. The building features extensive windows and study areas alongside a geometric garden with earth-toned planters.
The site hosted the campo di via Pola from 1923 to 1951, where Cagliari Calcio played its first matches. A municipal market later replaced the Largo Carlo Felice market there. Work on the Mediateca ran from 2007 to 2010, reusing the market's outer facades while demolishing the interior; it opened on 30 April 2011.
The Mediateca houses the library and historical archive of the Comune di Cagliari, moved here from the via Newton premises, along with the Maghreb cultural centre. For this project the city was the only non-Arab guest at the Paris book fair Les Maghreb des Livres. Its opening exhibition in 2011 showed Sardinian typographic art, including a lead plate used to print L'Unione Sarda.
The main entrance on via Mameli opens onto a piazza of walls and steps; the interior is laid out as a medieval-style courtyard with glass walls, planters and low walls used as seating. The building is 105 metres long, 30 wide and 10 high, with the Cagliari city library and historical archive inside, replacing the via Newton site. The last level is a later iron facade, distinct from the terracotta and travertine of the two lower levels.
The site held the city's football ground from 1923 to 1951, where Cagliari Calcio played its first matches, before becoming the municipal market. When the market was rebuilt, the outer facades were kept and the interior demolished; the top floor's iron front marks the new addition.
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