During the 30-year period from the 1970s to the 2000s, at least three cornerstones of Nuoro's own local history, and thus of its own particular urban aesthetic and sense of self, have been demolished. The old municipal building, with its courtyard, market, and public weighbridge gave way to the Banco di Sardegna building. The old prisons, the magnificent Rotonda, have given way to a multipurpose theater, closed for more than twenty years, which is now itself a testimony to urban archaeology. The view toward Badde Manna has been “plugged” by the bunker of the Satta Library. The latter is a specific case of “demolition through building” because what was demolished was the view, the glimpse, I would almost say the direct relationship between the land and the city. In these three moments I see the grammar of our being proudly devoid of an idea of the city.
