Sassari Cathedral (Duomo di San Nicola)

The Cathedral of San Nicola is the centrepiece of Sassari's old town, a 13th-century church with a spectacular Spanish Baroque facade added in the 17th and 18th centuries. The facade is one of the finest examples of Spanish colonial Baroque architecture in Sardinia — an exuberant mass of carved stone saints, angels, and ornament that looks more like it belongs in Mexico City than in a Sardinian provincial capital.

The interior is Gothic and contains some good works of art, including a 14th-century silver crucifix and several notable paintings. The church faces onto a small piazza in the heart of the old town, and the contrast between the elaborate facade and the plain grey stone buildings surrounding it is striking.

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The Duomo's Baroque facade was added between 1680 and 1723, layered onto a Gothic structure that was itself built on the remains of an earlier Romanesque church. The facade was designed by Spanish architects and financed by the Spanish colonial administration — Sardinia was under Spanish rule from 1420 until 1713, and the Catalan Gothic style left deep marks on the island's architecture. The interior is notably plainer than the exterior, the Gothic bones visible beneath later additions.

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